New Body, New Time
by norton159
Summary: After an accident, the consciousness of a guy gets sent through time into his 8 year old self to the Wizarding World. How will this change the events of the Harry Potter Saga? (Rated M for future violence)
1. Chapter 1

All copyrighted stuff belongs to whoever it belongs too. The story is mine though.

This is my first ever fic and I'm dyslexic so be genuinely constructive when/if you want to give any criticism. Constructive criticism is always a good thing. Looking for a beta, if anyone is interested.

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Mat Lawson is a 40-year-old man with a beautiful wife, two young children and the proud owner of an up and coming tech company. He was reminiscing of past events in his life, wondering what he would change if he could go back in time as his younger self. How would things be different? Would he be the man he is today? Would he change anything or influence the future to suit his needs? The answer would most probably be yes in many areas, he thought "who wouldn't?". He was thinking this when, through the thumping beats of the random electronica through his headphones, he heard a massive crash and squealing tires to his left. He turned in time to see a red and white shape, that looked kind of a lorry, very close and getting closer, there was enough time for him to say "SHI…"

Mat sat up in bed, sweating, heart thumping and finished off what he was saying to the lorry "IITTT!" He looked around the room he was in, confused and completely disoriented. He heard thumping footsteps as his mum and dad burst through the door, worried looks plastered on their faces. Light bathed the room, it looked strangely like what he remembered like it was when he was a kid Liverpool F.C. bedsheets and everything. Mat looked at his parents and realised they were a lot younger, he almost didn't recognise them. Panic started to set in, he started hyperventilating, it looked like he was about to have an asthma attack, so his mum rushed to get the inhaler, she passed it to him, and he took it in pure reflex. His mind trying to figure out what was happening. It must be a dream. "Surely this isn't real" he thought. He had a massive burst of information in his brain that gave him a migraine, he couldn't help but scream. The world started to get blurry, a ringing in his ears and flashes in front of his eyes overwhelmed all senses as memories and more information was pushed into his mind. The world started to darken, and he felt himself falling to into the blissful abys of unconsciousness.

The constant beeping was getting annoying and Mat swore at it to go away. He felt terrible, like he'd been on the sesh for a week and just woke up after not enough sleep. He rolled around and something pulled his skin on the forehead and left arm. Hissing in frustration and pain he thought to pull off the thing on his arm first, but that only caused more pain. He shot up and opened his eyes, the blinding light of white and fluorescent lights bombarded his vision "Jesus Christ!" Mat hissed with the pain. He heard a gasp next to him.

"Matthew! Are you Okay?"

Squinting he slowly turned his head, his hand in front of his face to block as much light out as possible. His vision was returning too slowly for comfort, but thankfully, it was returning; he saw a shape of a person with a light brown halo and a weird yellow coloured body. His vision started returning to clarity, it showed a woman with bushy brown hair and, and he now realised a mustard coloured woolly jumper. Facial features became clearer after around 30 seconds and he saw, once again a younger version of his mum. He stared at her in what seemed was an eternity, trying to figure out what the hell is going on. She lightly stroked his arm "Matthew?" she said with clear concern.

"Mum?" Mat said, in a too high voice and clear confusion. His mum smiled and tears formed in her eyes. "W wh what's going on? Where am I?" Mat asked.

Lowering his arm, Mat looked around and realised at the same time his mum said, "You're in hospital, love, you screamed and passed out, so we called 999, but you're okay now though, you're safe". She smiled at him in a reassuring way as his head snapped to look at her. He looked at her properly now, staring at her face, he smiled a worried smile back, trying to get his brain to figure out what is happening here. The internal discussion with himself about possibilities, dreams, alternate realities, practical jokes…alien abductions… were shooting though his head. He focussed on his mum as his brain was arguing with its self. The smile faded away as he realised that he needed to get more information about the current situation. Mat's mum took his hand to hers and he felt comforted by that. He looked around the room, trying to get more knowledge about this current predicament. He could visibly see the flicker in the florescent light bulbs overhead, they hurt. He turned to the infernal beeping sound and realised he was hooked up to a heart monitor and an Electroencephalography (EEG for short). They looked like they were from an old 90's T.V. show like E.R. or something. Mat's brain clicked and he looked around some more and everything did look old yet… new.

The room he was in was a discoloured white with wooden panelling in the middle. The door was a dark brown varnished colour, the same as the panelling. Painted wooden furniture, the same colour as the walls and a spare chair that was a terrible greeny-yellow colour with dark brown wooden arms and legs were the only decoration in the room. He turned back to his mum and realised that she looked exactly like she did from the old photos we used to laugh at when we found them doing housework, in the forgotten places at the old home. Realising that this was exactly what a hospital in England looked like in the 90's the pieces of the puzzle were falling into place but the absurdity of this being true was astronomical. Mat stared at his mum and the only words he could think of saying was "What the actual fuck?"

She scowled and growled yet it still came out as an amused growl "Matthew! Watch your language! Where did you hear that kind of thing? If you say your uncle Geoffrey I will be having words."

Mat laughed at the ridiculousness of the situation which made mum scowl harden. He thought "this cannot possibly be real, I mean, I was literally thinking about this and then kablam! Lorry! And here I am! And my mum told me to watch my language like I was an 8-year-old". Something else clicked in Mat's head and he looked at his hands, then his body, patting himself down like an airport security guard. He jumped up on the bed, pulling the wires out that were connected to the machines and setting alarms off in the process. Blood flowed out of the new hole in his arm that was connected to a drip he didn't notice that was behind him on the wall. He didn't feel this however, as he was looking down at a not tall enough, scrawnier adolescent body, which he could move like it was his own. He poked his belly, feeling the pressure under the hospital gown. It WAS his own body! Mat laughed and poked himself again. Mum shouted and grabbed his arm putting her hand over the gash caused by the needle being ripped out. He watched her do this with a weird serenity as the situation was getting clearer to him.

There was almost 20 seconds of his mum berating him for being daft. Then two nurses and a doctor rushed in to see Mat stood on the bed and blood pouring down his arm. Mat turned to the newcomers. His mum in a clear panic shouted them to help. With a clear look of concern on their faces, the nurses burst into action collecting bandages and other medical equipment to stop the flow of blood. He didn't listen to what was being said, he just felt arms guiding him back onto his back and he watched them stop the bleeding, cleaned and wrapped a bandage around his arm. He watched them do this with a serenity that he didn't know existed. He felt a tapping on his leg and Mat turned to see the doctor smiling at him "How are you Matthew?"

Mat replied, "I'm fine thanks, how are you?" he knew it was not the most intelligible things to say but what else could he say? "My consciousness has been sent back 30 odd years after being splattered by a lorry?" He thought that the people in the white jackets would come for him if did.

The doctor replied with an amused grin "I'm fine too thank you for asking, now can you remember anything from yesterday?"

Mat wracked his brain for something to say so he didn't say anything and shook his head.

The doctor man smiled again and said it was okay. "My name is Dr Marshall and I will be looking after you. You had us scared for the past few hours, everyone was worried". He glanced at mum then looked back at Mat.

Mat's mum asked "Dr Marshall is Matthew going to be okay? He's been here for a day and jumps up screaming!"

Dr Marshall walked round the bed and takes mums hand "Sandra, I'm sure he will be fine now he is awake, we are going to keep him here and do some tests to make sure everything is working fine, and we will take it from there okay?" Mat's mum wearily smiled and nodded at that.

The nice doctor and the nurses did some tests on Mat for the next half an hour, nothing intrusive, just flashed torches in his eyes, poked and prodded his extremities to make sure he could feel properly. It all made sense. Then they came to the part where they asked him about what he could remember about recent events, and what has been occurring in Mat's life in the past few months. Mat had trouble remembering some things. Then from somewhere, his mind brought up certain areas of knowledge about current events, even though he had no idea when he was or how old he was. Mat answered hesitantly, he was still sure that the walls were going to fall down and there was a whole camera crew and audience were behind them and laugh at this practical joke.

After a few minutes of answering these questions as minimally as he could Dr Marshall smiled a beaming smile at Mat and said that he appears to be in tip top shape. So, this was the routine for the next few days, he asked his mum for some reading material, which surprised her because he was not much of a reader back in the day. What surprised her even more what the content of the reading. Mat asked for newspapers, history books and other bits and bobs so that Mat could figure out when and how old he was. Turns out he had his 'incident' on his birthday, 2nd December. That made him now 8 years old and it was now 4th December 1996. He also remembered so much more that he used to be able too. His mind was getting clearer, like a fog was lifted that I didn't know he had. His vision was sharper, hearing better and reflexes were less sluggish that he was used too. Mat put this down to him being in a 'fresher' body. Not damaged by alcohol and other substances over the years. He could breathe easier too which was new. He was used to have the lingering effects of asthma on his chest. That was gone now though. Mat also demanded that no fluorescent lights were on in the room at all, they really hurt his head for some reason.

After four more days of Mat reading, visited by family and friends, and wandering around his little room, he came to the conclusion that this was too elaborate to be an elaborate joke. The worst yet best thing about all this was that many of Mat's family were alive and well. Grandma, Grandad, loads of aunts and uncles that he completely forgot about, he felt guilty about that, were all alive. He tried not to cry at seeing them all again but couldn't help it. Luckily, they just thought that he was still recovering from whatever happened and was happy to see them, which was in fact true. Definitely not a joke, and if it was it was the cruellest joke ever.

Mat took some strolls around the hospital (with an older person obviously) he thought this was ironic because he was technically older than his dad and about 10 years younger than his grandad. During one of these outings he noticed how fast his reflexes were when a patient came barrelling through a door and Mat ducked and rolled out of the way to avoid being trampled. He looked at his nana in shock as the patient, only a couple of years older than him was sprinting at top speed down the corridor. She saw this happen and asked Mat if he was okay. Mat just nodded with a little laugh and that was that, nothing else happened that day.

As Mat's dad tucked him in bed after having some family time watching the video he was supposed to get for his birthday, Toy Story, his dad gave him a questioning look. "Is something wrong dad?"

His dad, or Mike to everyone else, had observed that Mat was quieter, was able to form his speech better and laughed at all the innuendoes meant for adults in the film. Mat's changes appeared to be for the better though, even with the weird understanding of innuendos at his age. He seemed to have a hunger for knowledge, he read 10 books while in hospital and said he wanted to read for an hour in bed because it will help him sleep. "There's nothing wrong with reading" Mike thought. But he also seemed too old for his age. His eyes looked more mature. Mike didn't know why he thought that. But Mat's speech was also more articulate, he said words he shouldn't know at 8 years old. It seemed like someone threw a dictionary as Mat's head and all the words imprinted themselves on his mind. Mat even knew more about history, science and technology. The best example happened the second day after Mat woke up. They were talking about when the UK was going to cede Hong Kong to China, he had no idea how the topic came up. Mat then started talking about why it had to happen, the legalities behind it all and an in-depth lecture about the First and Second Opium War's. Everyone was gobsmacked and did not even ask him once until he had finished where he got all that information from. Mat just shrugged and said he read it once. See, the main problem is that Mat was usually a doer, not a thinker, but after the 'event' he had changed and there was a noticeable increase in his intelligence. He noticed this after a couple of conversations with him. Not that Mike was complaining. He liked the change, but he felt that something about his son was missing but he couldn't put his finger on what.

Mike smiled and stroked Mat's head "are you okay son?"

"'Course I am, why dad?" Mat smiled but looked a bit confused

"You seem to be acting different" when Mat's reaction was to flinch, Mike responded with "Not that it's bad thing! Its just you know more, and seem… well… just a bit different, I can't explain it"

Mat looked into his dad's eyes, and couldn't help but feel sorry for him, he knew he was a different person, but he was still his son. So, he told a lie and hoped to whatever sent him here that his dad would listen. "I dreamt things after I had the headache, I remember what I have read more clearly now, I don't know what's happened to me. But somehow, I feel that there's been a fog lifted from my head, like there was a wall blocking me from using my brain as much as I should be. Now it's not there anymore. It feels good though" Mat smiled "I feel free". The best lies are the ones that have the truth in them.

Mike couldn't help but tear up at that, but he had to keep a strong façade for his son. Mike nodded and said, "as long as you're okay that's all that matters to me son".

Mat gave his dad the first genuine smile since he came home "I'll be fine dad, you'll see. Can you trust me?"

Mike looked down at his son and ruffled his hair "of course I do mate, now, I'll be back in an hour to make sure you're not reading". Not even five minutes had passed, and Mat was out like a light.


	2. Chapter 2

C2

Mat woke up the next morning with ultimate clarity. He had a very restful sleep in which he fully recovered and let him completely organise his mind. His parents told him that he had the next two weeks off school, so he decided to gather as much knowledge as possible to see what this world had to offer. As was ritual, he was drawn to the shower and did the usual morning business then went downstairs. He grabbed some cereal, sat, and started to munch on them. He did not realise that it was 7am, it always feels dark in December so it could have been 10am and not known the difference. His dad came downstairs "Mat, what you doing up at this time?"

With a spoon half way into his mouth he looked at dad and then at the clock and back "honestly, I didn't know what time it was." Then carried on eating as if nothing had happened. His dad just huffed, grabbed food and put the T.V. on. Both were not morning people, it seems that hasn't changed from his first reincarnation. For some reason Mat had the urge to run, he said so to his dad.

"Eh? Why? At this time? You mad? Its frosty out there." His dad said incredulously.

Mat grinned and shrugged "No idea, I have the urge to run, I don't know why."

"No, you're not going out at this time, you're 8 years old and the Dr Marshall said you need to have rest, running isn't rest now is it Mat?"

Utterly deflated but understanding the argument, he nodded. Suddenly he perked up "what about the library? I'm sure to not pass out from exertion in there am I?"

His just looked at him gone out, "you've never wanted to go to the library, you said it was the, and I quote 'most borningest place ever'"

Mat shrugged again, "yeah well I changed my mind. Can I then?"

"Yeah, well… That's not for me to decide, your mums looking after you today, ask her when she wakes up".

Mat nodded and sat downstairs waiting. His dad left to go to work. Mat decided to do some drawing to pass the time. For some reason T.V. didn't seem interesting anymore, there wasn't enough choice with only 4 channels in 1996. When his mum woke, Mat asked her the same question he did his dad and while shocked, she seemed happy to say yes. And so they went.

The library seemed smaller when he was older, Mat decided. Instead of beelining straight to the children's section, Mat navigated to the nonfiction. The small part that was dedicated to stuff that actually happened was tucked away and only had one section dedicated to it, but that was enough to have over 200 books placed within. Mat grinned and started pulling all sorts out and was hungry to devour the secrets within. Mat could barely carry the 7 books when he plonked them on the counter and asked for them. His mum looked at the selection, blinked and shook her head. They took them back home (his mum carrying half of them) and Mat instantly sat in the window and started devouring the information of first one he grabbed: The legacy of Chernobyl.

Mat realised while reading The legacy of Chernobyl that he was genuinely interested in this book, and understood the scientific aspects discussed within. Before, he was mainly interested in ancient to renaissance history. Well, he did have a Masters in Viking Archaeology, so he must have some interest in the area. From after the renaissance to modern day though, Mat had little to no interest apart from the enlightenment period as it ties in well with modern politics. One must be educated on modern politics, otherwise we are just another sheep, being told what to do or what not do, when to stand and when to walk. Regardless, Mat read the book with a zeal. Absorbing the contents within an hour and fully comprehending the material. Mat observed that this full understanding of a book within an hour was not normal. He pondered this for less than a minute. Pondering what to do with this information… this new… ability? Well there were many possibilities, but he couldn't decide just yet and so he did a mental shrug and grabbed the next one on the pile, Fundamentals of Musical Acoustics.

He realised that the subjects were extremely scattered, covering most spectrums of human learning but he didn't care. He finished off the other six books in just under 5 hours. He sat there contemplating this new-found skill. He didn't feel fatigued at all, in fact he had more energy than before. He put his football boots on, went outside, found the tattered USA World Cup of 96 ball and kicked around the garden in the lightly falling snow. He started running at full sprint, dribbling the ball, stopping the ball at a dead stop, kicked it and ran after it again. He repeated this over fifty times without tiring. He stopped and realised what he had done, looking at the clear line of the muddy grass line from one end of the garden to the other. Mat had a sinking feeling in his stomach that his mum was going to kill him. But the energy was still there. And so he started dribbling around the garden, around the washing line posts, plants, and around the random ornaments scattered around. He changed directions at a whim, pretending that the obstacles were all trying to tackle him. He didn't know how long he was going for until he heard someone shouting his name. He stopped dead and looked for the source of shouting. He saw his mums furious gaze and paled.

He locked eyes with his mum, she was angry, "look at the state of the garden! What have you been doing?"

Mat looked around and saw the damage, there was mud everywhere and the grass was completely ruined. Some of the plants were damaged also. Mum loved her garden, the first word Mat thought of was "shit".

His mum bored into his eyes with hers, "what did you just say?"

See, Mat was never really scared of his mum. She was always kind, never rose her voice and rarely got angry. But then again Mat had never done anything to truly anger her. Not that he was a good kid by any means, he just wasn't naughty enough to truly get told off. This was a look he had never seen before, it was something new. Mat did not know how to reply. He looked back at her, now truly feeling like an 8-year-old "errr, sorry?" he tried his best, most innocent smile. It didn't work.

Without shouting, she calmly and coldly told Mat to go inside, clean his boots, get cleaned up and go to bed. He did so without question. This was a new situation for him. Mat laid in bed and reflected what happened that day. It was 6pm, he'd been to the library, come back with 7 books, read them, ran around the garden enough to absolutely ruin the lawn and kill some plants. The strangest thing is, he did all this and did not even feel tired. He felt guilty for ruining the grass, certainly, but he needed to move. There was too much energy in his body, and he had to expel it. The past 7 hours had gone in a blur of knowledge and exercise and he felt sated. He laid back and started to organise his thoughts. Bring his scattered memories into some sort of system. Like a mind palace from Sherlock, or the art of Occlumency from Harry Potter. He had been trying to do this in hospital but couldn't focus enough. His theory was that he was still getting memories downloaded into his brain, but now the current theory was that he had to expel energy to organise his thoughts. And so he did.

30 minutes later he was shouted down for tea and could not help but smile at the chicken nuggets, smileys and baked beans presented before him. His intention was to apologise to his mum and explain that he needed to expel his energy. That he felt the need to do it and could not explain it. Mum was still angry, he could tell, "Sorry mum" Mat said quietly. He didn't look at her but was watching from the corner of his eye.

Mum's face fell and the anger floated away "It's okay Matthew, why did you do that? It's a good job its winter and most of the stuff is half dead anyway. But it doesn't mean I'm not angry at you though, you ruined the lawn!"

Mat's face burned and apologised again "I had to burn the energy off, I don't know why. I've been wanting to do it all day, in fact, since the hospital. Then after reading all those books the need to run was overwhelming. All I know is that I need to do it more, I still feel the need to do something now. But when I was laid in bed, before I came down here, I could organise my head. Like, I could sort my thoughts out and place them where I can find them." He finished speaking and finally locked eyes with his mum and saw an understanding. Dad was just sat shovelling food into his mouth, too tired from work to be bothered about the grass and knew his wife would handle the situation. She's good like that.

"Matthew" Mat's mum said with a sigh "the doctor said not to do anything for the next two weeks because your body is still recovering from whatever happened."

"But mum, I'm full of energy, I can tell you now it won't go away, I don't know how, I just do." Mat said pleadingly. His mum had a calculating look in her eyes which turned into a worried one. She did not want her garden destroyed even more and for some reason knew if she kept Mat from doing any exercise, she would never have any grass in the garden at all.

"Fine, I will take you to your taekwondo lesson tomorrow and see how you feel okay?"

Mat smiled and thanked her. They ate their dinner, Mat got sent to bed early and continued sorting out his mind palace. While laying there, memories he had long forgotten flashed in front of his eyes. Information about companies, technology, the future financial crash and unbelievable events happening around the world; they all seemed at the time to be random occurrences; it occurred to Mat that he could use this knowledge to his advantage. If he could convince his parents to invest in some companies that will become huge in the future, they would never worry about money ever again. And so Mat planned.

The next day Mat woke and did his usual business. He spoke to his dad in the morning, this will become a ritual in the future. His dad informed him that his mum had a collection of the Encyclopaedia Britannica stashed under the stairs. Immediately after eating his cereal, Mat dug though the cavern of coats, boots, scarves and other random clothing that they never threw away and found four boxes of books. He struggled but eventually succeeded in getting them out and opened them with a huge grin. "More stuff to learn" Mat thought. There were 40 books contained within, 10 in each box. He moved them and sat in his new learning spot in the window. It was still dark at 7 in the morning, luckily there was a lamp where he sat so he switched that on and started absorbing what was inside. Time flew past and he didn't even hear his mum come downstairs at 9 until she said good morning to him. He answered back and just kept on reading. He had his dinner without really noticing what he ate. Before he knew it, it was 5pm and his dad came in. Tea was made was made and they ate that in a peaceful silence. At 6:30 his dad took him to taekwondo, and this is where Mat learned that more physical aspects about his body had changed.

Mat knew he was physically fitter compared to the first time around. But he did not realise how much more enhanced he was until they started sparring at the local community centre, where the taekwondo lessons were being held. They did the usual laps around the hall, rolls, and warm ups then they split up into pairs. He teamed up with his one-time best friend, Craig. Craig was very competitive and hated to lose. He was a bit taller and had a wiry strength about him. He was a sore winner and always rubbed it in Mats face when he won. Back then, Mat was rather timid and did not like hurting people. Mat had changed and had the fighting spirit of his older self. And so they sparred. Mat and Craig were going for it. Craig had the skill, but Mat had the reflexes. He blocked, parried and dodged Craig's attacks and Craig did the same from Mat's assaults. They were both smiling at this, having fun with this new challenge. The smiles were suddenly wiped away when Mat saw an opening, took it, and Spartan kicked Craig in the chest which sent him flying across the room, and into their sparring neighbours. Craig and the other students were in a tangled mess on the floor when the teacher came storming over, shouting at Mat for taking it too far. Mat didn't listen, he was gaping at Craig in shock with what happened.

Mat realised that he was much stronger than he used to be and reckoned he could probably take his 40-year-old self out as well. The force physically lifted Craig off the floor with the kick. Mat's mind was working in hyperdrive trying to think of what this might mean. Why did he come back faster and stronger? Was there a reason behind this? He had to control himself in the future. Even though he was tired, Mat did not want to do any more exercise and so left early with a smiling father. His dad slapped him fondly on the shoulder "it's about time you put that kid in his place."

Mat gazed up as his dad and laughed "yeah thanks dad, I need to control myself in the future though, but no one will push me around."

He ruffled Mat's hair and said, "that's the spirit!" in a happy, proud voice. They went home chatting about random stuff, but Mat couldn't help but ponder what happened.

When they got home, Mat asked his parents if he could sign up to more classes, like boxing, Jiu jitsu and other combat sports. He would have mentioned doing Muay Thai or mixed martial arts but in the mid 90's these were seen as underground sports. He figured that an 8 year old would not know about something like that and would be hard pressed how to explain it to his parents. After a brief discussion they relented and agreed to take him to classes. So now, his weekly schedule was completely full. School on weekdays, martial arts after, then football practice on weekends. There were some comments made that he would be burned out, but Mat promised them both that he wouldn't. he felt that he wouldn't.

The rest of the time Mat had off from school, he absorbed knowledge from random books found in the house or an excursion to the library. One day his mum took him to a second-hand book shop. He was in heaven, especially in the bargain bin with every book for a pound. Most of them were all nonfiction too! They took 23 books home that day. To sate his curiosity, he managed to find books about the human anatomy, biology and other subjects about the human body. He was trying to figure out why he was different this time and if anything could explain it. He knew about the amazing feats of flight and fight responses; like stories of fathers lifting cars to rescue their kids or mothers surviving something that should have killed them to save their child. He had looked into this after he remembered watching the T.V. show, Alphas, about super humans and a character from that show who could access this power. That was his current theory.

He discovered that this was possibly not the case, because the information within these books could not explain the increase in strength and fitness as well as the sudden disappearance of his asthma. It was too sudden. His mind could be explained with brain damage, however. But how much influence did the mind have over the body? After he remembered watching the movie, Lucy, he came with up with a secondary theory of mind over matter. But the main problem with that was his entire consciousness being sent back 32 years and now discovering he was a super-duper version of his self. He decided not to peruse too much into this because it will most likely send him insane.

The first day at school was a nightmare. He forgot how annoying the tribes of screaming kids were. His two young ones in his past life were 4 and 6. He used to drop them off at school and wasn't annoyed by the screaming little buggers. He also came to the realisation that he did not really miss anyone from his old life. He couldn't figure out why. Should he feel guilty about this? He also realised that he did not even think about them often. Did he lose some of his emotion from before? Was he now an unfeeling information robot? Or was he that in control of his emotions because his mind palace and he could control them? He answered his own question by placing these thoughts in the 'for later' box and continued trying to not lose his shit with the mindless babble of primary school children. He really tried to fit in, but he couldn't.

The teachers treated him like a mindless child and refused to answer his question on certain subject because "they knew best" and "they are the adults". Even though Mat made good arguments which apparently challenged their authority, by questioning the information they provided, they thought he was just being unruly and got sent to the headmasters' office in the afternoon. After waiting outside, obviously annoyed by the whole situation, Mat was let inside and asked why he was sent there. "Well Mr Bunting, Mrs Anderton was telling us about the Great Fire of London, and she said that the fire was spread by the thatched roofs on the buildings. I argued that thatched roofs are not as flammable as people believe due to it being so tightly compact. She said that because it was straw it was flammable and compared it to the Three Little Pig's nursery rhyme, saying that it was a poor building material, that's why we don't use it anymore. She thought that was that and dismissed me. But I asked her what about the law which banned thatch roofing in London? And then I then told her that it was a misconception that straw was a poor building material and asked her why it was relatively recently it was stopped being used as such. She then just shouted at me, claiming that I don't know what I am talking about then sent me here, and here I am."

Mr Bunting was shocked to say the least. He had spoken to Mat many times and never saw him as a child that could come up with an articulate answer and argument, especially at his age. He saw that Mat was not trying to by unruly, he was challenging the information given. He asked Mat "how do you know this much about thatched roofing and the laws in London, Matthew?"

Mat replied "I read it in a book" with such an innocent face that Mr Bunting couldn't help but smile.

"Which book did you read it in?" he said, amused yet intrigued by the child.

Mat realised that he could not say that he read it in, Plague, War and Hellfire in 1666, because it was published until 2016. So, he just said that he could not remember. And said that he probably put the pieces together by reading his mum's Encyclopaedia Britannica. Mr Bunting nodded at Mat's explanation and the conversation evolved from Mat being unruly to this new-found passion for reading. Mat shrugged and explained that after the incident that sent him to hospital, he felt that he had a hunger to read books and learn new things.

Mr Bunting scrunched his face and asked Mat "so will you be questioning your teachers more often then?"

Mat replied "of course Mr Bunting, if we don't question, we don't learn"

For some reason that sealed the argument and decided not to punish him and would ask his teacher to observe him and be more patient to see how if this new trend becomes normal. Mr Bunting let Mat stay in his office for the remainder of the day and let him borrow some books he had in his office Mat asked for. At the end of the day Mrs Anderton came to the headmaster's office. The headmaster and Mrs Anderton had a brief conversation about Mat, and she agreed, reluctantly, to Mr Bunting's suggestion. She noticed that Mat was nose deep in a book about the Monarchs of England. And wondered if this was indeed a permanent change in Mat's behaviour.

About a month went past with Matt constantly questioning the Mrs Anderton on a wide range of subjects. Over time she opened up and started enjoying the surprisingly intelligent conversations and discussions with the boy. She thought these changes were remarkable, so she delivered her report to Mr Bunting. She hoped it was the final one she had to deliver, so Mat could start on different, more advanced subjects to challenge him intellectually. As she walked through the door to Mr Buntings office, she couldn't help but smile at the pudgy jovial looking man. He had a kind heard and always strived to look after the kids under his care.

"Aaaah Mrs Anderton, come in come in! I presume you have brought your final report of young Matthew?" he said with an anticipatory grin.

She nodded and handed the folder to him, "yes Mr Bunting, its all here, I must say, Mat has seen a huge improvement in class this past month. I hope that you are sorting something to help him improve. This change is absolutely dazzling". She sat down straightening her skirt as she observed him glance over the contents of the paper she handed to him.

He leaned back in his chair reading the contents. A minute passed and Mr Bunting nodded and closed the file. He flicked his tie and leaned forward "okay I have a plan for Mat, and I want to ask if you agree with the proposal." She nodded and gestured for him to continue. "Right, I have two private tutors to teach him English and maths, I believe he is far ahead of any student in these two subjects. However, ones that are above the others can join if they want. The substitute teachers we have on the roll can sit with him in the library and get him to read a book, then, write a quick report about it and tell the teacher his opinion on it, just so we can prove that he actually understands what he is reading and make sure he is being critical with what is inside. I want to make sure that his social life will not be damaged so I will be encouraging P.E. and other subjects like painting, drawing and other forms of art that he can do with the other children, preferably have as much time with the kids in his current class. And, I think that is about it, what do you think?"

Mrs Anderton could not help but smile at Mr Bunting. She agreed whole heartedly with what he proposed and decided to implement this plan for next week. Mat was going to be properly challenged.


	3. Chapter 3

C3

Mat was informed of the new schedule the headmaster gave him and was excited. Books can only teach you so much. Practical exercises are essential for learning. He was looking forward to working with a smaller class, almost like a seminar, he excelled in those at university. They did challenge him and he improved in leaps and bounds. When the school year was about to end, he was challenging the teachers to find more tasks for him. They were not prepared for the speed he was learning. He could never get a proper grasp at maths, now he took to it like a duck to water. He was always quite proficient with English and could read and write pretty fast as well. Now he was doing all three as at astonishing rate. Mat loved it.

It was the day before school broke up for the summer holidays and everyone was excited, and Mat went with the flow. He was following his mates outside the school to walk home with them. He realised that he could stand them more now he treated them like adults, they acted more mature around him too. With the kids that were still too immature, he distanced himself. They were still kids though, they will learn eventually.

His mates ran across the main road laughing and he just followed, not really paying attention and he heard the screeching of tires coming from his right. He turned sharply, he thought "oh shit not again" as he saw a red car speeding toward him, he put his hand, palm out instinctively and closed his eyes, hoping he would not have to go through all this shit again. Instead of any pain or waking up dead, he heard an almighty crash, metal twisting and glass shattering. He stayed where he was, the noise quickly went away, it was replaced by a hissing noise. Mat slowly opened his eyes and mostly all he could see was a golden glow emanating from his hand. The glow had hexagons and was pulsing from his hand outwards. It was about 10 centimetres away from his hand. The best way Mat could explain it was that it was a shield. He looked down and noticed that the front of the car was crunched around the shield. His eyes were bulging, he took all this information in and, obviously, this was coming from him, he could feel it somehow. This was new.

He heard shouting from his mates, and he turned to look at them. He then turned back to the car and dropped his hand. The shield melted away. The first thing Mat thought to do, was run. And run he did. Five minutes later he was home, he threw his bag in the living room and went upstairs to think about what happened in his bedroom. He laid on his bed staring up at the ceiling for what felt like an eternity. Mat pondered and thought to himself "So, I can absorb information at astonishing speed, have super-fast reflexes, boundless energy and can create shields. What comes next? I can do magic?" He shot up in his bed and swore "magic!" he shouted out loud, "is that the key? Can I do it? Or do I have more than one ability? I will have to do some experiments on this." He said so himself.

Mat meditated and went through his memories of what happened earlier that day, and decided to try and see if he can do it again. To make sure it was not a one-time thing. He also decided to test and see if he could do something else. What kind of magic is it if it is magic? If I have other abilities, how would I figure out which ones I have? Science fiction and fantasy books, Mat decided. He will keep on doing what he was doing, he felt physically and mentally stronger and this new information did not stop his hunger to learn. In fact, he realised that he wanted to keep on learning.

The next day started as usual, the ritual, breakfast, chinwag with his dad and then school. He contemplated last night that if it was magic, does it have rules? Mat's favourite author Brandon Sanderson wrote an article called 'Sanderson's Laws of Magic'. He discussed the way magic systems work in books. He grades them from soft magic, to hard magic. Soft magic, in the most basic of terms, is when the author has no specific rules for the magic involved, there is no system. Tolkien and the magic that is used in by the Wizards in The Lord of the Rings, is the most relatable when discussing soft magic. Sanderson goes on to say; the reason Gandalf does not just fly Frodo to Mount Doom is that it does not follow Tolkien's own magic system, but the readers do not know the rules. Hard magic follows a set a law of magic which the author uses to influence the world. In this case, the best example is Sanderson's own Mistborn series. Allomancers usually have one skill, using steel for example, lets them push metals away, Iron Allomancers lets them pull metals towards them. The rules are there and cannot be broken. The Mistborn is the oddity because they can use all metals and is only heard of in hearsay and the mythos within the world. The Middle ground is a mix between the two. Harry Potter is a prime example of this and has rules which have to be followed. The author can make up rules and spells to suit the narrative in the mid-range of the Laws of magic. Rowling kept adding, and inventing new magics to the system, however the rules that she made are rarely broken.

Mat studied Sanderson's Laws and was curious to where, or if, superhumans could be placed anywhere on the scale. They all have abilities, but they vary in every character. If a certain problem occurs, a new superhuman could be brought in to fix the problem. Mat didn't know what to think. He would have to figure this out and understand where the laws crossover to this new world and if they apply here. So, the trip to the library consisted of burrowing though the science fiction and fantasy sections. Luckily, they had the first six Wheel of time novels, so he grabbed them. He also tried to get Game of Thrones, but he wasn't allowed it. Made sense he supposed, from their point of view anyway. Some Star Trek books were thrown in for variety, and Warhammer, both fantasy and 40k were also included. He was close to the limit of 15 books. Unfortunately, the superhero genre was not as popular in the 90's, especially in Yorkshire, as it was in 2029. The best thing he could think of is to go to a comic book store. Mat had never been to one of them before. He left with 13 books that day.

He absorbed the information of the fantasy books and realised he knew exactly what was going to happen, word for word, in the Wheel of Time series. He had read them 7 times in his old world. He decided to test this and delved into his mind palace again after reading the 6th book. He visualised opening the seventh in his mind. He could do it. This was brilliant. Unfortunately though, the hundreds of academic books Mat had read through in his old life could not be fully accessed. This was because he used a small part of a book for the information he needed at the time. Like a chapter or two to get a reference for an essay. However, he had read hundreds of sci fi and fantasy books, he was a bit of a nerd. He realised that he had a library that he could access in his head. The books he had read this time around were added to this library. Mat constructed a library in his mind palace. He was adding more and more to the mind palace, and eventually it started to grow. He started calling it The Village.

The Village was composed of an outer wall with buildings inside and a fortified structure on a hill overlooking it. There was no real landscape around the village, just a purple-blue miasma. There was a huge complex on one side which dominated The Village, he called it the University. The University was a white brick complex with pillars that seem to be influenced by Roman and Greek architecture. The Windows were decorated on the sides with flowers and trees, the glass was plain and had a single pain of glass, made to have as much natural light in the building as possible. This is where the library was located. At this time it was mainly empty, the library started to take shape though and seemed to fit well with the rest of The University. The complex had many empty rooms and labs which he had plans for later. The fortified structure looked like a classic wooden motte and baily but knew that the more he came here and imprinted his personality, it would become stronger and eventually turn to stone, hopefully even metal. There were a few wooden houses and hovels dotted around. Mat reasoned that these were here because that is how he envisioned a settlement. He had a feeling it was what an Anglo-Saxon settlement would look like. He was fine with that. There was a temple where he could practice his martial arts, meditate and go over his experiences to iron out mistakes. The temple had a South-East Asian design with many trees intertwined with the stone. It looked like Angkor Wat, the trees were part of the structure, not growing through it. He could also see a tower starting to form, he couldn't figure out why that was there, his subconscious was probably trying to tell him something, no point in arguing with himself though, Mat reasoned.

He was seated in a comfy chair and reading book 7 of the Wheel of Time, he could read it all, like it was actually there! This was perfect. He read the rest of the series and other books that were installed in his brain. He decided to go to the temple to try and form some new ideas about his powers. He settled down in the standard cross-legged position under a tree. He realised he should get some books on meditation and psychology to perfect The Village in the future. He replayed the incident with the car and shield over and over. Mat thought that the shield came out because it was activated by the adrenaline running through his body through from panic. If he could re-create this feeling, could he activate the shield? He did not want to stand in front of cars to try this though. Mat came back to the real world and stood up in his room. He visualised and tried to emulate the emotion and feelings from before. He was sweating and trying his hardest for about ten minutes when he felt something. He could feel a small flow of something being pushed to his hand. He opened his eyes to see a light golden mist coming out of his hand. It wasn't a shield though, but it was something. He tried to will the mist into something, he got it to get brighter but that was it. He felt exhausted after half an hour pumping whatever energy it was into the mist. And he was bloody hungry!

He went downstairs for food. It was nearly 5:30 now, and his mum was about to make tea. He really fancied fish finger sandwiches and mushy peas. He devoured them and was still hungry "this shield thing must take more energy than I thought" he thought. He smuggled some biscuits and crisps upstairs and munched on them reflecting on the day. He fell asleep early that night and missed boxing.

Mat woke up later than usual. His mum was shouting him to get up before he was late for school. He swore and did the usual business but rushed so to not be late. He made it on time, just. He sat in his class and Mrs Anderton started calling out the register. He felt someone looking at him, he turned in time to see four of his classmates look away when he saw them. They were his mates that were there yesterday. He swore under his breath. Mrs Anderton called his name, he replied, and the morning went on. The first break was when everything went tits up. Everyone had heard what happened. The kids were all asking him about it. He just didn't know what to say, no matter what happened they would create rumours about him anyway. Mat didn't like being the centre of attention. This time was no different. Though he handled it better than his previous life. He tried not to respond to any of the questions, he did answer that had no knowledge of the incident though. It was the break after dinner when something weird happened.

Mat was in one of his seminar sessions, doing advanced algebra with the tutor when he was called to the headmaster's office. That in its self wasn't unusual, it was how he was called there that was. Mr bunting came himself. He looked worried. Mat sighed and mumbled "bollocks" to himself, got up, and followed Mr Bunting. He saw the man standing in the headmaster's office and he was an odd sight to say the least. He had dark grey hair and light blue eyes, almost like ice but with a friendly but serious expression. He was wearing a very out of date blue pin striped suit, bowler hat, and a brown trench coat with sunflower attached to the front left of it.

Because Mat was in the semi-private seminars, he had no idea that the man had been speaking to many of the children and the handful of adults who witnessed what happened with the car yesterday. Mr Bunting pulled out a seat "Matthew, sit down please, don't worry, you're not in trouble". Mat smiled nervously but kept eye contact with the man in the weird suit, "this is Mr Dawlish, he has come investigating a car accident involving a child you're age yesterday. Witnesses say that you were there as well, and you ran away. The boys you were walking home with are all shaken up about it. Understandable really. Can you tell us what happened?"

Mat looked at them both, his mind trying to figure out what to say, he attempted to go for the half-truth "I'm not exactly sure, I heard a squeal and massive smash I turned to see a car had hit something, I'm not sure what. I panicked and ran home. I know I should have stayed, sorry."

He looked at them both pleadingly and the headmaster nodded as if he had just verified what the others had said. Mr Dawlish bored into Mats eyes, he could feel something from the man. "Can I speak to Matthew in private please Mr Bunting?"

Mr Bunting harrumphed at that, "I'm not sure that is appropriate sir, an adult should be with him when it comes to a situation as serious as a witness to a car crash."

Mr Dawlish smiled and a wooden stick fell into his hand, turned away so the headmaster couldn't see it. Mat did though. "Is that a wand?" Mat thought. Mat saw Mr Dawlish swirl the stick around and a light pink light flew out and connected with Mr Bunting's head. Mr Bunting appeared to instantly look drunk "I'm sure it will be fine Mr Bunting; can you step outside for a while please?" Mr Dawlish asked.

Mr Bunting drawled "err o-okay then" he stumbled outside, and the door closed on its own.

Mat turned to Mr Dawlish wide eyed and a clear look of confusion and mistrust on his face. Dawlish sat down with a welcoming smile on his face. "No need to be alarmed Matthew, I am what muggles call a policeman. I know something else happened yesterday, I know you might be scared of what you saw, but I can assure you it is okay. Its perfectly normal for this to happen and you are not in trouble at all. You can trust me."

Mat stared into his eyes, trying to process this. He was in Harry Potter Land. This is nuts! He remembered the guy from the movies, he was an Auror. He did a bit look like the guy from the films, but also different. He looked at the wand, then back at him. And uttered one word "magic?"

Dawlish nodded and smiled a pleased smile "you saw that did you? Mr bunting will be fine I can assure you, I just had to speak to you alone because muggles are not aloud to know about the Wizarding World. Do you understand?" Mat could only nod at that. "Excellent! Now, can you tell me what really happened?"

Mat thought to himself "fuck it" and tell the guy, what's the worst that could happen? "erm, my mates ran across the road, I just followed them, not paying attention. It was stupid I know. Then I heard a screech and saw a car coming towards me. I held out my hand to try and stop it, don't know why it thought it would help. But it did! A golden light was surrounding me, and the car had crashed into it. I was fine. I didn't know what else to do and panicked, like I said earlier, and ran away. Was the person driving the car okay?"

Dawlish nodded at that, "Yes, yes he will be fine, the police have him in custody, he was apparently a bit drunk at the time." Dawlish smiled "I knew it was you Matthew. I detected someone used magic where it happened, and traced it back to this school, I'm happy came clean. You were lucky, lad. It seems like you protected yourself with you're magic and cast, what we call, the Protego charm. Very impressive for a young 'un. You performed accidental magic, usually you need a wand to cast that spell."

Mat nodded and couldn't help but break into a grin "cool" he chuckled

Dawlish chuckled as well "it is cool indeed. Now I have isolated the incident, we can do damage control and make sure no one remembers what happened" with Mat looking at him in concern Dawlish spread his hands out in a placative manner "don't worry! It will be fine. We have experts who do this sort of thing all the time, no one will be hurt. We will send somebody to you're home sometime in the future to speak with your parents about it okay?"

There were too many questions going through Mat's head at this moment in time. Mr Dawlish placed his hand on Mat's shoulder, "I know you have questions, but it will be okay, you can ask as many as you like when the others come to see you." With that, Dawlish opened the door, cast a cancelling spell on Mr Bunting, shook the man's hand and left. Mr Bunting came back in, asked if everything was well. "Yes, Mr Bunting, I'm fine. Just a bit shook up is all."

Mr Bunting smiled and told Mat to take it easy for rest of the day. He did as he was told, not because he was told too, because he had to process what he had learned. Harry Potter Land, this is just getting daft now! Mat had to plan. In mid-1997, the Half Blood Prince would be ending and the events of The Deathly Hallows were about to start. That meant that the war going to happen soon. In fact, shouldn't there be bits and bobs on the news about people disappearing and other stuff? Like gas mains exploding and people dying? This is another thing to investigate. This is the first time Mat felt scared. Some right nutters in the Wizarding World, like Bellatrix Lestrange and Voldemort. Hopefully he would be able to learn enough to stay out of trouble. One thought came to mind though. Dawlish. He was an Auror with Fudge then was working under Voldemort capturing muggleborns if he remembered correctly. Mat was a muggleborn, unless his parents didn't tell him about being wizards. He highly doubted that. So, if Dawlish was a bad guy, capturing muggleborns, shouldn't have he taken Mat away? "Something feels off here" Mat thought.

Mat was quiet for the rest of the day. Everyone thought that he was processing what he saw yesterday. Which was kind of true. He went home, had tea and decided to meditate and read the Harry Potter books at The Library in The Village. He began to make plans. He knew about most spells in the Wizarding World, the lore, the story and the characters. He knew what was happening right now, and if this world is anything like the books, the war would be over just in time for him to go to Hogwarts. Harry would sacrifice like a good little pawn, get resurrected and kill Voldemort by sheer dumb luck; like most times when Harry won. The best thing for Mat to do is keep low and play it by ear. He would train himself as much as he can under the radar to protect his family. This gave Mat a purpose. To protect his family.

Over the weekend, Mat read through the Harry Potter books five times. He made a room in The University that was dedicated to the Wizarding world. There were files upon files of contents that he could access from the series. He categorized parts from the books into their own sections and sub sections. Spells for example, were categorised as dark, light or in the middle ground. Subsections within the categorisations we added, for example the different forms of charms and hexes. There was a character section, again, split into light, dark and middle. The locations section had places like Dagon Alley, Hogwarts and Beauxbatons. Hogwarts had massive amounts of information. Mat spent the whole weekend doing this. At the end, the room looked like an obsessed detectives' room from a cheesy police show.

On Monday morning, there was a knock at the door. Mat's dad was about to go to work. Mat overheard some voices and came from the kitchen to investigate. It was 8am and he was helping his mum wash the pots at the time. He was just about turn to get to the entryway when a man in an unbelievably bright blue robe walked through. It was intricately decorated in what seemed like silver thread. The man was bald and had dark brown skin. He was followed by one of the plainest looking people Mat had ever seen. While the first man had a welcome smile which matched his bright blue robes, the other looked outright grim in comparison. He had pasty skin, was very gaunt and his face seemed to have the emotional range of a potato. The mismatched and out of time suit made him even look more boring, if that was possible.

Mat stopped dead in his tracks as he took in the newcomers. He established that the blue man Kingsley Shacklebolt, he kind of stood out from the descriptions from the books and the portrayal of him in the movies. He could not identify the other man though. He thought that he would be able to identify someone as boring as him. His dad followed them in with a concerned look and his eyes immediately found Mat. Mat's mum then came from the kitchen drying her hands.

"Mike, who are these men?" she tried to look at them both at the same time. Her reaction was to walk over to Mat and place her hand on his shoulder. More to comfort her than Mat.

"It's okay, Sandra. This is Mr Shacklebolt and Mr Savage. They are from the government."

Mat's mum looked concerned, "the government? Why are you here?"

Shacklebolt spoke first. He had a deep voice and spoke clearly and slowly, it demanded respect "It is fine Mrs Lawson, We explained to Mr Lawson that we would like to speak to you both and your son about an incident last week on Thursday."

"Why would you want to speak to Matthew?" She asked

"Your son was directly involved. I presume that he did not tell you about it?" Shacklebolt answered.

Mat's parents both looked at him with both concern and a hint of anger. Mat looked down at his feet, he had the decency to look sheepish. They explained what happened with the shield and the car. They started talking about magic.

"Magic?!" Mat's parents said at the same time. "Are you mad or something?" Mat's dad said.

Shacklebolt laughed, swished his wand, summoned a chair and sat down on it to the gasps of everyone else apart from Savage. Mat knew they could do this, but to see it was something else "I'll be able to do that" he thought to himself. He couldn't help but grin when he saw what Shacklebolt did though. The next couple of hours consisted of Shacklebolt and Savage describing the Wizarding world, that Mat was a wizard, and Mat attempting to ask questions and not giving away the fact that he knew about the Wizarding World already. They both observed that Mat was extremely inquisitive and asked all the right questions. They explained that they will be visited on Mat's birthday by someone from Hogwarts about Mat going to study there. Mat couldn't wait.


	4. Chapter 4

All music mentioned is from the creator (I wish I could bloody make something like that up). All Hazza P stuff is owned by Rowling, you know the drill. If anyone could let me know how I'm doing or could improve, comments are appreciated. Peace!

V=V=V=V C4

It was the day after the meeting with Shacklebolt, Savage and his parent's discovery of magic, and that Mat was a wizard. The agreement between the 'adults' involved were to tell no one of Mat's ability and that the Ministry would take care of any witnesses who saw Mat perform his accidental magic. Shacklebolt was the one who mainly spoke throughout the conversation. Both Mat and his parents kept trying to engage Shacklebolt, they preferred to speak to Him rather than Savage. Savages voice nearly put them to sleep. He was a pleasant enough bloke though. The conclusion to this meeting was that Mat could not visit the Wizarding World until after the meeting with the representative from Hogwarts. They emphasised that that the shield was completely accidental and that all magic could only be accessed by using a wand. Mat was not fooled by this. The experiments with trying to create his shield confirmed it. He also knew about Runes and Occlumency.

He could prepare for Runes by studying Norse and other Germanic Runes as well as Egyptian Hieroglyphics. Mat observed in the movies that the Runes looked like a mix between Egyptian and Norse Runes, they usually favour the Norse style though. He was convinced that he could hybridize technology and Runes to get them to work together. He got this idea from the many, many fan-fics he read over the years. He also knew how backwards the Wizarding World was in regards to technology and their thinking. Quite frankly it did his head in how daft the Wizarding World was, he decided to prepare for that. He was not under the illusion that everything would be like what they were in the books and movies though. He could also study Latin to get a step up on the spell casting to get a better grasp of the spells. He knew that magic in that world was intent based and he enforced this belief in his mind.

Occlumency he had already had a grasp on. The Village proved this. He knew about Legilimency though. He had to prepare his defences. He could not afford Snape or Dumbledore to know about him, if they were alive at least. The amount of knowledge Mat was absorbing and had access too was quite frankly mind blowing. He knew that if he became a master of Occlumency so his mind could be safe. The meditation books he had could help with this, or at least give him the foundation to build on.

Mat also had to help his family financially. He was going to do this eventually, but not until later when he became more accustomed to this new life. He felt he still had a lot to learn. Now his parents knew about magic, could he convince them to believe him about certain events and help them when the time comes? The American company, Amazon, would become a billion-dollar company eventually. Could he convince his parents to buy stocks in the company? Or other companies for that matter? At least his mum worked in a bank, so she could buy shares easier that way. Other investments should be in tech or internet firms. He remembered AltaVista and Ask Jeeves were massive in the 90's. Google would become huge too. One could not forget social media platforms like Facebook, Myspace and GeoCities. coin would give him a tidy profit as well. Nvidia would become one of the leading computer graphics manufacturing companies in the world, if Mat could get his families foot in door from buying stocks in these companies, they would be loaded and want for nothing in life. Mat was unsure if all the companies would become as big in this universe though. He mentally shrugged. No risk, no reward. He decided to tell them he has premonitions due to his magic. He remembered that the gentlemen who came round yesterday mentioned that people could see the future. He would convince his parents that he could do that.

Mad meditated and delved into his memories of companies. He wrote a list of over 50 companies that would become big and decided to cross reference them with whatever he could find. Later that day he took a trip to the library and for the first time, realised how fucking slow the internet was in the 90's, he completely forgot! He found out that all of the companies on his list were there in this world. How could he convince his parents to trust him with their money? A lightbulb turned on in his head. Football. Mat was not a football fanatic to say the least, but he did love the sport. Because of his ability to recall memories, he looked through his thousands of hours playing Football Manager and looked for the Champion's Cup final, it was tomorrow, conveniently. Borussia Dortmund Vs Juventus. He packed his things away, grabbed some more books (obviously) and left with his mum. Mat decided to bring the subject up at dinner.

"Dad?" Mat asked innocently "You know that conversation we had yesterday with those two men? And that I'm a wizard?"

Mat's dad looked at his son, fork halfway to his mouth with shepherd's pie, "yes, why?" he carried on eating his shepherd's pie.

"Well, I didn't want to say so before, but I've been having these dreams that feel so real. Do you think they would happen? Do you think they could be something to do with my magic? The men said yesterday people can see the future if you remember?" Mat hoped that his dad would listen to him.

"Yeah I do remember, what kind of dreams are you having? Not nightmares I hope?" he said with concern. He looked at his wife fearful.

"No. Not nightmares, nothing like that, just things that might happen, like, I keep seeing the Champions League final scores for tomorrow. I have a feeling in my gut I know the scores. I have other ones too. Like companies that will become big and other random stuff." Mat explained.

"Oh really? And what would the scores for tomorrow be then?" His dad replied, amused.

Mat grinned "3-1 to Dortmund." His dad looked at him in the eyes, studying him. Mat looked confident.

"3-1 to Dortmund? Jim was talking about that today, he said the odds are good for Dortmund to win tomorrow."

Mat nodded "yeah, I saw online today" he lied "but if this is true, what if the other things I dream come true? We could be rich. I don't want to get your hopes up or anything but its worth a shot isn't it?"

His dad looked away, he seemed to study his plate. "I've never been one for gambling. I don't intend to start now." He looked at Mat again "are you certain of this?"

Mat nodded "yes dad, I'm certain."

"Let's see what tomorrow brings shall we?" Mat didn't see the wink his dad gave his wife.

Mat didn't know what to think, he had no idea what his dad would do. Mat went to taekwondo that night, then went to bed. He woke up the morning like it was a normal day, just without school. He devoured contents in the books he had and went to Jiu jitsu class and got in at 8. As he walked through the door he heard the Champions League music blaring through the T.V. Mat smiled to himself, freshened up and sat with his dad. He had never seen him so animated while watching football. He isn't really a football fan, he tolerated it because mat liked it. The shouting at the T.V. and the players, the family celebrated when Dortmund won 3:1. "Mat you legend!" his dad said as he picked Mat up in a bear hug "I placed a bet on that match, £100, it was a 40-1 chance for that score! I won! I won £4000!" He laughed, put Mat down and danced a little jig.

Mat was laughing at his dads' antics. He knew he had secured their loyalty for future investments. Over the summer, similar bets were placed, the next one was the title fight with Mike Tyson Vs Evander Holyfield, he convinced his dad to place the entire 4 grand on Holyfield to win. The odds were 25-1. They made £100,000 that night. Things were good. They started investing in the companies Mat suggested. Mat did not really have much information on other sporting events from that year apart from Ronaldo winning the Ballon d'Or in December. They decided to tone it down a bit though. Winning this much money in a short amount of time would raise eyebrows. They decided to lose a few bets here and there, but maximise profits on the right ones, at least until the stock markets started to make a profit.

Mat did not go out much during the summer holidays. He did go out a few times with friends, but it felt weird. He went to football, boxing, Jiu Jitsu and taekwondo practice religiously though. He could read the body language of his opponents and was progressing through the ranks pretty fast. He had to hold himself back most of the time. He entered a taekwondo tournament, which he won. Mat was desperate for a Muay Thai gym to open in Doncaster. Kickboxing was not something he liked so he refused to join one of them. He practiced his magic though, focussing on the shield. He could make a relatively solid golden one, it easily covered his torso. He still felt tired after holding it for a prolonged period of time, but like a muscle, the more he practiced, the stronger he got.

He tried to get as many books as he possibly could over the holidays. He persuaded his parents to take him to charity and second-hand book shops. They scoured the county and Mat managed to find a decent selection of books on Latin, runes and Egyptian hieroglyphics that was the main goal. He also got a grand selection of magic and sci fi books as well as history and scientific ones. When he started learning Latin, he found easier than he thought he would. A lot of the terms were used in daily life in England, this occurred to him while learning the language. He would have to try and hire a speaker of the dead language to get the pronunciation right.

The material for creating runes was surprisingly easy. Many of the most famous runes in the muggle world were from runestones and graffiti left by Vikings. "Halfdan carved these runes" in the Hagia Sophia is famous in the world of Archaeology. Mat did not know the specifics of rune crafting in the Wizarding World and so did not attempt to combine them with hieroglyphics. The study of hieroglyphics was much more complicated than runes. The same pictogram could have multiple meanings because of the different Ages and Dynasties in Egypt, the writing evolved. If they did use the Egyptian symbols in runes, he would have to figure out which script was used. The glyphs used in the Second Dynasty are drastically different from ones used in the Ptolemaic Era. There were over 3000 years of Egyptian writing, it would be illogical to study it all to only find out they used the script from the New Kingdom. Regardless. Mat decided to study a broad spectrum of many runes and hieroglyph-based languages to get a basis for the Ancient Runes module at Hogwarts. This was his project over the summer, he was determined to be able to read and write in all the Germanic Rune languages he could get his hands on. And a broad-spectrum knowledge on hieroglyphs.

The Village was becoming more solid. The walls appeared sturdier, there was even a moat starting to form at the base. The rooms in The University had items in it for research and were shaped like either a lecture theatre or lab. Mat discovered he could access books from The Library in these rooms that were related to the topic. When he was exploring, he found a room which appeared to be aimed at studying nuclear fission. He noticed posters on the wall which had images of Chernobyl on them. He couldn't help but smile at that. Medicine, biochemistry, engineering, history and all the subjects that Mat had read appeared to be accessible in these rooms. Outside the library the wooden houses appeared to be more detailed. Plant pots and decorations were added for some reason, it made him smile. The Temple now had inscriptions on the stone and paintings on the walls of calming landscapes. The trees were inscribed with mythical creatures, they appear to have grown like that. Well, they might not be mythical anymore, who knows what's out there. The fort was still a motte and bailey, but with like with everything else here, there was more detail. Blank banners were fluttering in the non-existent wind, towers were added to the walls, the gatehouse was a mighty structure with two portcullises and even a murder hole. What impressed Mat the most though was the Tower that was starting to take shape. It was next to the keep of the motte and bailey within the walls of the structure. He realised that it was getting stronger the more he used his magic. He could not access it yet, there was no door. Two new features in his mindscape was the sun and a landscape. The sun was dark purple orb with a pink centre, bursts of power could be visibly seen arching over the horizon. It was beautiful but was obviously wild and untamed. Mat noticed it when he finally achieved the first corporeal shield. It was a small thing then, a little pink dot in the sky which gave the mindscape a sort of warmth.

The landscape around The Village appeared to be a mountain backdrop with a deep forest that connected to a crustal blue lake on one side and The Village on the other. The rest was clean, green grass that connected to the deep forest. It felt peaceful. The books he was studying on Buddhism, Hindu and Taoist meditation techniques were starting to pay off. He spent much of his time here. His head never felt so clear.

The next school year started, and nothing had changed really. Well, he had a new teacher, but because he was in his seminars, he did not really care. He enjoyed the tasks he was given in these classes, they challenged him in a good way. He made sure there were no random outbursts of magic at all while in school. He was drawn to the music room more this year though. Mat had always liked music. While writing essays at university or doing complicated bits of work at his job, he would usually have some hard dance thumping in his ears, never anything under 140bpm. He realised that he didn't listen to music often here. The knowledge intake appeared to take over and he found that he missed listening to it. It was the second week of shool when he found himself moving automatically towards the music room and opened the door to see a woman playing the piano. He recognised the piece as Chopin. He sat there taking it all in and smiling. He could visualise the keys of the music in his mind. It resonated with him. It may only be a poor representation of a piano on a keyboard, but it sounded brilliant to him.

About two minutes later the woman finished the piece off and turned to see mat sat there. She jumped "oh! You made me jump! I didn't hear you come in."

Mat looked around the room, it seemed less alive now there is no music. He shook his head "sorry Miss, I was just enjoying the music, I didn't want to disturb you." Mat smile gingerly.

"It's fine, luv" she replied in a very strong Yorkshire accent "is there summet you wanted?"

"No, not really, I just thought you were really good and so I followed the music" Mat replied.

"Aww that's sweet of you duck, thankyou" she grinned at Mat's words, "have you ever played the piano before?"

"No Miss, I haven't" he had, but when he was 11 years old in his past life, he was terrible at it.

The woman huffed "stop with that Miss business, lad, I'm Julia" she got up and walked towards Mat. She was taller than he thought. She was middle aged, but that only appeared to accentuate her beauty. She had high cheekbones and kind brown eyes and her dirty blonde hair in a tight bun. She was wearing plain black trousers with a blouse which showed off her body quite well. Mat would have instantly wanted to chat her up, but his young body hadn't even reached puberty yet, he was definitely not looking forward to repeating that shit. She held out her hand for him to shake. He did so. "Do you want to try?"

"yes please" he replied quietly. Julia turned around and beckoned him to follow her. She motioned him to sit next to her on a stool and they both went though some basics. This was another thing Mat picked up easily. He could see the pattern. He was tapping his foot to the beat and his fingers tapping the key's he was getting a bit faster and was reading the music.

"Wow! Are you sure you've never done this before?" Julia said with an amazed chuckle. Mat stopped dead and looked at her and blushed.

"No, I haven't, I promise! I just pick some things up easier than everyone else." He looked down at the keyboard and his hands and he thought he could have seen something. Something golden, like the mist that comes off the shield. He felt the music go through him, like it was calling to him.

Mat's expression must have appeared to have been worried because Julia nudged him "it's fine love, don't get upset about it. I thought it was bloody brilliant. Do you think you could do more?"

Mat nodded and turned the page and stared at it, it was a Bach this time, instead of playing that though, he decided to play The River Flows in You. He tested the keys to make sure he was comfortable. It was a dream of Mat's to play that song. He started off slow, playing the first few bars, then started picking up pace, the notes flowing into his mind and his hands working on their own. He was playing it! His favourite piece and he was playing it! He could never do something like this back then. His hands just wouldn't do what his brain wanted. Now he can do it! He continued playing and the 3 minutes and 31 seconds of pure beauty was finished. He looked up at Julia, she was blurry. He wiped his eyes and realised he was crying. He looked back at the keyboard, wiped his eyes again then back at her. His face nearly split in half in a smile.

Julia was also crying "that, that, what was that? It was beautiful." She wiped her eyes with one of those tissues that women seem to always have on them.

Mat looked back up at her "can I borrow that please?" he asked, she nodded and gave it to him. Mat used to always get teary eyed listening to this song, but now he was outright sobbing. Was it the piece of music? His magic? Or the fact he can now play his most favourited piano piece? Possibly all three. After he finished wiping his eyes and pondering why he was crying, he answered. "I don't know, I had it in my head for ages but didn't know how to express it."

"I think you're a prodigy lad, what's your name? You never said." Her hand went to his shoulder.

"I didn't? oh I'm sorry!" Mats eyes bulged "it's Mat."

"Mat, that was incredible. Do you know how to write music?" Mat shook his head "Would you be willing to write the piece down if I thought you how?"

Mat shrugged, "I suppose so."

Julia clapped in joy, "Brilliant! I will make arrangements with your teachers about getting some practice in school. If it's okay with you, could I ask some of the teachers to see you perform it again?"

Mat blushed but smiled "yeah I suppose so, would this be before or after I write it down?"

"How about I get the headmaster to come and listen to it as soon as possible and we can get some more people to listen too? Afterward I will teach you." she said excitedly.

"I don't want to do it in front of loads of people. How about my parents and a few teachers, is that okay?" Mat was starting to feel a bit shy.

"Yes! That will do nicely." She made Mat jump when she said that "oh! I'm so sorry duck, I'm just getting a bit excited, I need to calm down a bit." She took some deep breaths to calm herself. She asked if Mat could stay here for a few minutes so she could run and get the headmaster. Mat agreed and she literally ran off to find him.

Mat was pottering around, playing some of his favourite tunes back in the day, like Chicane: Salt Water and some UK hardcore tunes like Neckbreaker by Scott brown when the door burst open. It made him jump, as Julia, Mr Bunting and his secretary, Mrs Nesbit, a completely unremarkable woman, came in. Mr Bunting immediately found Mat sitting on a stool and laughed "So what else are you good at Matthew?" Mr bunting was always the jovial looking man, clean shaven, in his 50's, greying hair and moustache, always in a suit and tie. The kids at school used to compare him to the fat controller from Thomas the Tank Engine which is unfair but kind of true.

Mat grinned impishly "turns out I'm good with piano as well Sir."

"Ha! You keep on surprising me lad! Let us get seated and show me this piece Julia was raving on about." He glanced at Julia who was blushing and smiling.

"You will be more than surprised too Mr Bunting. Trust me." They all found their seats and Julia motioned Mat to start playing. He turned his back to them, found the keys and started. Again, he started slow, and sped up with the music. He observed his playing more closely this time. There! Its pulses with the beat in time with the music. He could see a golden shimmer, he could visibly see the sound waves pulse from his body. They appeared to reverberate around the room. He kept playing though, and he could feel his emotions come out with the music. He played the full piece like he was born to do it, it seemed to flow from him. He finished and turned to look at his small audience. Julia was the least affected, but she was still crying, she had a massive grin on her face. Mr Bunting was bright red trying to hold it in but failing. Mrs Nesbit was openly wailing into her handkerchief, she sounded like a sealion. All three looked at her as she blew her nose. She looked up and noticed everyone staring at her and hid her face in the kerchief, still crying.

"That was incredible, I don't know what I felt but it was something! Th-tha-that piece of music is exceptional Matthew! Utterly beautiful, Angelic even!" Mr Bunting wiped one eye, stood up and came to a blushing Mat, "it seems you have something else you excel at! Do you want to practice this more?" Mr bunting looked at him eagerly, almost pleading.

Mat grinned and nodded "something else to figure out now" he thought.


	5. Chapter 5

After Mat played the River Flows in You for his audience of 3, the headmaster, Mr Bunting, insisted that he should ring Mat's parents so they could hear it. Mat shrugged, expecting this. The way the headmaster called his parents appeared to cause concern. Mat's dad had to come from work early and thought that Mat was in trouble. His mum was coming to pick him up anyway, she asked a confused Mat if he was okay. Eventually the six of them went to the music room after a brief discussion with Mr Bunting assuring that Mat was in fact not in trouble. He sat at the keyboard and played the piece again. He turned around to a beaming audience and Mat couldn't help but feel proud. He felt the magic pulsing the more he played. He asked for either a piano or a keyboard when he finished. It took a while for them to get their wits back, but they eventually did, and they went straight to the music shop, called Higher Rhythm and bought one of the best there was. It was the least they could do after he basically earned the family thousands of pounds.

A week after they got Mat the keyboard, mat realised that while playing music and meditating helped clear his mind to such a degree that he needed less time to sleep. In fact, the theory was that because his mind was relaxed, it didn't need to rest, well, it did but it rested when Mat meditated. It took approximately 4-5 hours for him to get enough to sleep to feel fully energised. He did feel tired when using his magical energy up, but food was the main cure for this. After food, meditation was the next port of call to fill his magical reserves.

Mat practiced daily with the piano, he tried other instruments as well as singing but he was terrible. Turns out he wasn't awesome at everything, he mentally shrugged "aah well" he thought. The link between magic and music was obvious to him. Playing music while pumping his magic into it helped him to understand both intimately. They worked in unison. The golden pulse was not seen by his parents or the few teachers and students who had heard him play. It was felt by all of them though. The sun started changing in The Village the more he linked the music to his magic, it was changing from purple-pink to golden yellow. The Village looked more alive and vibrant now.

Mat practiced with the shield daily, it had become more solid and covered him from head to thigh. He had to keep his hand out, palm first, to keep it going, it wouldn't work any other way for some reason. He could switch which hand he used though, which was good because he reasoned that he would have to use his right hand as the wand hand. He could also manipulate the shield into different shapes and sizes. It naturally formed into an oval shape but could now change it into the shape of his body. He felt it was a bit stronger this way, but it only faced where his palm was pointing. If he moved his head when the shield was in this form, his head would be vulnerable. This was not ideal.

A month had passed, and Mat felt the music and magic was becoming one within him. The shield was a lot stronger, it was oval at the top and splayed out toward the ground, almost like an arched doorway of energy. The next spell he tried to form was Lumos. He decided to try and create a ball of light in his right palm. He could manipulate his magic to the palm, and could form it into a ball, only he could see it. He tried it at night, the ball gave off no light. He tried this for days, always in the dark and finally succeeded, it was a golden light again, different to the Lumos spell. But if it worked, he didn't care which colour it was.

During this month, he had convinced his parents to invest in some tech companies he had 'visions' of. Some were already paying dividends. He also convinced them to place shares in Apple. The shares were low at the moment but knew the company would become giants in the future.

Mat's interest in technology stemmed from the firm he owned from his old life. He may have had a masters in Viking Archaeology, but he used his skills to found a computer game company that focussed on learning as well as entertainment. He was in partnership with a couple of universities that helped him with his research. He had just released his crowning jewel. It took four years of work and to be honest, he was pissed off to not know how successful it was. It was based in 14th century France on the border of English Normandy during the Hundred Years War. He was proud of his achievement. Due to his experience in the gaming industry, he knew how popular it would become and who the main players were going to be. He literally had 20-20 hindsight. EA were already a prominent figure and he decided to get a foothold with them as soon as possible. Other companies like Activision, Blizzard, CD Projekt Red and Valve were his targets for this venture.

He also wanted to change the shape of the world, get rid of the bigotry, racism and corruption that was strife when he left. He hated the idea of social classes and the aristocracy, the fact they could do things most folk would be imprisoned for. Therefore, he decided to invest his money into a law firm that stamped down these and get a foothold into the media sector. Even though he knew about the upcoming popularity of social media, the sheep tended to listen to the news on TV and the shite the newspapers spread. It pissed him off, and he knew the wizarding world would be worse. Blood purists? Fuck that mate, he would have to gain allies quick to make sure the muggleborns were equal in that society. Hopefully the war would have ended by the time he goes to Hogwarts and most of them would be dead in prison. Somehow Mat thought it wouldn't be that easy. These were long term plans though

It wasn't long until Mat's 9th birthday on 2nd December. Already the tips to his parents into companies were already paying out. This was noticed by the bank his mum worked for and she was offered a promotion because of it. Things were good. Mat had decided to, instead of just absorbing all the knowledge he could about the world for himself, he would help his peers in any subject that they needed him in. He became quite popular in school because of this. His parents organised a huge party for him. Mat wasn't really that bothered about that, it was a nice gesture.

It was a snowy Tuesday and his parents had booked the local community hall for a disco. Everything was set up, the DJ had the turntables and speaker system in the right corner and nibbles were on long tables at the left side of the hall. There were lights set up around the room with decorations wishing him a happy birthday. It was pretty sweet.

People started to stream in, the hall was big enough that both adults and kids stayed. It was getting quite rowdy and Mat was socialising with everyone. An hour or so into the party he sat down and watched the DJ play. He focussed on the sound, he had no idea why he was doing it. It was calling to him. Salt n Pepa, Push it, was being played, Mat could feel and see the soundwaves coming from the bassline and the kick drum. He was hypnotized. It was small at first, like a small pulse that emanated from the speaker. The more he focussed the more he could see. He could see the many other frequencies being projected forth from the sound system. The more he concentrated, the more he could see. He began to notice a rainbow of colours coming out in different angles. He noticed that when a pulse of a kick drum hit a wall it changed from a shimmer in the air to dull silvery colour, then it darkened more, once a fracture of it hit another surface. He could see the reverberations in the sound. Was this magic as well? Or could he see sounds? He found it fascinating and beautiful. He didn't even like the song.

Mat had to peel himself away from watching the soundwaves as people were starting to ask him if he was okay. The party ended and everyone went home. Even though he did no real exercise that day, the party tired him out, he went to sleep early. He woke up on Wednesday morning refreshed. He did his usual business and settled down to watch his memories of yesterday evening. He had studied this recorded memory phenomenon and decided that it was not a photographic or eidetic memory he possessed; because most of the interviews with people with those wonderful brains do not report anything that he can do. He decided that it was his brain being used as a storage device like the hard drive of a computer and his magic was helping retrieve everything he has seen in a way that would not overload his mind with information. The visualisation of The University was possibly his mind creating something that he can conceptualise, so the brain does not have to delete most of what he sees.

He sat in The Temple watching his memory of the sound waves last night and smiled. He could not see deeper into the phenomenon because it was a memory, so he decided to experiment. Coming out of his meditation, he thought of how he would conduct this experiment. He looked at his hand and made the motion to click his fingers. He accessed his magic and focussed. The world blacked out around him and he all he could see was his hand and the point of where the sound would come from. He then clicked. A small golden pulse emanated from his hand. He smiled at this and tried to make it louder, the exact same colour appeared. "Huh, that's weird" Mat mused.

He decided to clap his hands and the golden colour came out again, the exact same shade of gold. Mat was confused. What was the difference between him making noises and him hearing them? Why could he see different colours from the speakers yesterday? Where was the colour gold? He found this very odd indeed. He tried slapping the wall, no difference, he tried hitting two coat hangers together, same outcome. He huffed and sat down on the bed and started to think. Why is the colour gold the only colour I can make? What does that mean? I made different sounds, in different frequencies, with different objects and it was the same colour as my shield. He came to the realisation that he could see different colours from other things. Was it just music he could see, or could he see other things? What about voices?

He went downstairs and turned on the T.V. He found a nature documentary, a repeat of Life in the Freezer with David Attenborough. He sat in front of it, crossed legged and started to focus. The volume was on moderately loud, nowhere near as loud as the speakers at the party though, and not loud enough to wake his parents. He stared, fixated on the speaker under the screen.

It must have been about half an hour when he felt a tap on his shoulder "Mat? What are you doing?" Mat jumped out of his skin. And rolled away from his dad

"Jesus dad! Don't do that!" He was on his back looking up at his dad, breathing heavily. His dad just laughed, a full belly laugh, "It's not funny!" Mat admonished "you scared the shit out of me!" it was the first time he had jumped and had this reaction since he came back into this universe. A few flinches here and there but nothing like this. He must have been lost in concentration.

"Oi! Don't swear!" his dad told him off, "you seemed out of it, just sat there not moving, I called for you twice." He still had a smile on his face though.

"Yeah, well, I was concentrating, wasn't I?" Mat replied.

"On what? I thought you were just watching TV. Penguins are cool though." he nodded to himself.

Mat agreed "yeah they are awesome, but that wasn't what I was staring at. Can you keep a secret?" he stared at his dad hopefully.

"Of course I can, I know you're a wizard after all, I've told nobody about that" he sat down on the settee with his cup of tea.

Mat nodded, "true. Well, you know I can play the piano really well?" his dad nodded and gestured him to continue, "well, I think my magic works with the music, I don't fully understand it yet. But last night I could see the sound coming from the speakers. They were all different colours. It was awesome. I tried to see again this morning by clicking and clapping my hands, but I couldn't see anything" he lied, "so I came down here to see if I could see anything from the T.V. speaker, I couldn't see anything. Its weird" Mat scrunched his face in thought.

"Huh, that is odd, sounds cool though, pardon the pun" he grinned, Mat rolled his eyes "well what if its not loud enough for you to see? It was pretty loud there last night. My ears are actually ringing a bit this morning."

Mat was shocked for a moment, his dad wasn't an obviously smart man, but he was a genius with making things, he was a joiner after all. He did have his moments of brilliance though. The obviousness of his thought made perfect sense. "Huh, I never thought of that, thanks dad! I'll try that later, I need food now."

He smiled at his son, "no worries lad." He sat back into the settee with his tea and watched the penguins on T.V., Mat got his food and watched it with his dad. It was a comfortable silence.

Mat's next experiment was to use the stereo system when his dad had gone to work, and his mum was awake. He settled down and got comfy, readying himself for intense concentration again. He pressed play on the CD player and Meatloaf, Bat Out of Hell 2 started. Slowly he turned up the volume so it was loud, but not uncomfortably so. He focussed on one speaker. He didn't know how long it was until he could see it, but he could see the pulse of the kick drum. That was the first sign. The bass was next. The other colours then started to become visible. He focused more and tried to pick which instrument was the colour. Because Meatloaf's voice is so distinctive, he could pick out the green of the voice easily. The guitar was silver and piano yellow. The backing singer's voice was a lighter shade of green. The colour of the sound was not just one colour though, each note changed the colour slightly. With some colours, he was sure he had never seen them before. They was a mix between two colours. And were colours that were two colours at the same time, that didn't make any sense to him. He could pick them out, each instrument with the colour. He was satisfied with that. He skipped the CD to its first track, and watched the sounds again, he picked the instrument's out easily. The same with the next, and the rest of the album.

He laid back onto the floor with a grin and let out a satisfied sigh. It felt good to see the colours, it made him relax. There was something magical about them. He decided to refine this new skill over the coming months.

Christmas came and went. The second semester had started at school. He was progressing further in and was on track to be at GCSE level in maths, science, history and English. He asked the school if they knew someone who spoke Latin and they hired a nice lady to teach him after school, a Miss Jordan. His schedule was pretty hectic. It was school from 9-5 on a weekday, Monday, piano lessons then taekwondo and on a Tuesday, Latin then boxing. He had Jiu Jitsu on Wednesday and Friday. Boxing again on Saturday after Football and Football on Sunday. All the extra classes were about 2 hours each, apart from football which was a full training session of 4 hours. He never felt tired. In fact, Mat felt invigorated by the constant strain on his body. Mentally, he felt on top of the world. The amount of knowledge he had taken in was astronomical and with his meditation techniques, he felt relaxed and calm. The Village helped a lot with his mental fortitude and his constant cool demeanour. He could escape into his own little paradise and it took the weight of the world off his shoulders.

Mat refused to do the exams for his GCSE's he felt that he did not want the attention. If he was going to disappear into the Wizarding World, he had to stay under the radar. He refused to take his music to higher levels just in case he made news or gained any sort of reputation outside of his local area. Getting the best results in his year though, that was fair game. He continued to practice his Sine Sight. Sine Sight is what he called the ability to see sound. The sine wave the was the most used physical representation of sound and he thought this appropriate. He was terrible at naming things. He spent many hours practicing Sine Sight. He discovered that when he concentrated, everything resonated. He had a sort of echo location and was aware of everything around him.

It was early spring when he went with his parents to Brodsworth Hall. They were having a picnic in the garden area and Mat and his family were laying on the grass chatting away. He was laying on his back and his hands were palm flat against the grass. He started to go into a trance. He was aware of what he was doing and began to hear and feel everything around him. His eyes were open, and he could vaguely make out colours in the sky and from the branches of the trees overhead. He felt the vibrations of the few people walking around and knew that one couple were exactly 43 metres away from them. He couldn't hear what they were saying though. He could tell that the man had a slight limp, possibly from an injury, he was favouring his right leg but was having no trouble walking. He could tell this by listening to the bass each footstep made on the gravel path.

He focussed this trance like state, trying to feel and hear everything around him. The sound of nature was in varying shades of browns he noticed. Bird trills were in blues and he could tell one bird from the other with the colour sound it made, he had no idea of the species though. He was lost in this trance like state for at least half an hour. Finally, they had to leave, but over time he always sought out places like this. His favourite place was in the garden. He asked his dad if he could build a sheltered area so he could meditate in bad weather.

Close to the end of spring, he had heard of a Muay Thai gym that opened in his local area and he had to check it out. If it was up to his standards he would join immediately and drop boxing and taekwondo. He was the only one there for the first class. The man in there seemed disappointed but was happy for at least one person to join. The man was in in early thirties, had a good stubble and short hair, it was jet black. He was not very tall but he was compact, not much of an obvious physique but if one knew what to look for, this man was in peak condition. Mat was never super athletic back in the day, but he was always active. In his five years at university he had joined the mixed martial arts societies. Muay Thai was his favourite. It felt natural to him. The man's name was Tom and he had been training in the sport for years, since he was a teenager, he had even won a tournament in Thailand and got onto the professional circuit before an injury stopped him from competing professionally. This was a good sign.

They did the usual warm ups and then he got Mat to start hitting the pads. Tom was amazed at Mat's reflexes and strength and told him not to hold back. Mat was shocked that Tom could tell he was holding back. No one else had ever told him to put all his effort into the sport, apart from football. Mat didn't really want to either because most of his sparring partners had been his age. He could easily have a repeat of what happened with Craig, the boy never did properly speak to him after that. They were on the pads for about 20 minutes straight, Mat had built up quite a sweat. Tom had shown him how to use his elbows and knees correctly while in a fight and they moved onto clinch training. Getting in close to the enemy was extremely beneficial in a fight, especially in the Wizarding World. They all seemed like wet sponges there, apart from the Quidditch teams. This is why Mat kept on training in Jiu Jitsu.

Even when Mat did MMA in the old world, he was never taught how to master moves while in the clinch. Tom taught him how to twist, turn and worm himself into position to strike the enemy, usually with the elbow or bring the fighter closer to the body for a knee in vulnerable places. They spent just 10 minutes practicing this, Mat got used to the movements quickly. Eventually he got to spar. They put all the protective gear on and fought. It was tiring and it was fair to say, Mat got his arse kicked. He couldn't help but grin, it was awesome. Over time he got better but always lost to Tom. Tom had a reach advantage and experience, Mat had speed, reflexes and boundless energy. There is no shame in defeat if it makes one stronger. And Mat got stronger.


	6. Chapter 6

Mat was 9 ½ years old and had advanced so much in school that he dropped out and was home-schooled. This was decided by his parents due to his school trying to push Mat into gaining qualifications at a higher level and performing his music in local theatres. Mat agreed wholeheartedly with this decision. He now had more time to pursue what he felt he needed to, to realise his plans.

He helped steer his family to success in the stock market and the property ladder. They were getting rich, very fast. His mum had more success with her job due to smart investments, that money was funnelled into buying properties and his dad was renovating and selling them for profit. They eventually started their own company, Lawson Enterprises. His parents were co-founders. His dad acted as a property manager and his mum, the financial specialist. She split off from her job at Barclays bank but kept links within the company so she could access their resources, it was mutually beneficial, Barclays had stocks in Lawson Enterprises but had no control. The gambling aspect was ended as soon as the money started rolling in. They did bet on the World cup though.

The Lawsons were millionaires in the middle of summer 1998. The smart investments and the business enterprise were taking off. Mike, Mat's dad had hired nearly all of the family to work in home renovations as well as helping people get into the building trade. His mum, Sandra, had an office on their own property in the head office that is on their property in the new home. They had moved to a new house this year too. Lawson Enterprises had bought it with the intention of selling it on but had fallen in love with the small estate. The previous owner was in hospital for years and the property had fallen into disrepair, the garden was overgrown and there was some flood damage. There was over 4 hectares of land on the property. The main house consisted of two wings but was not overly large. They updated and repaired everything within and without of the house. Mat demanded they build a gym, library and an area for him to meditate outside. They could not deny him this as he was the reason for their success.

The amount of money being brought into the family allowed them to hire some of the best private tutors in the area for Mat. He now spoke fluent Latin and had a firm grasp on Germanic runes and a general understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Mat would meditate for hours in the small temple structure on the grounds, it was a 3-minute walk from the house in a very old, untamed wooded area. He would organise his thoughts and calm his mind in this space. He was intimately familiar with the trees and wildlife that lived around here. He could see the brown colours of the plants and trees all around him. He was getting so attuned that he did not need to open his eyes now. As he meditated, he accessed his magical core. The plants and wildlife were flourishing in this area. The trees seemed to have grown and were arching towards the small temple structure where Mat would meditate. The grass was a perfect green, as were the leaves on the trees. There were wild flowers like bluebells, violets, witch-hazel and many different colours of tulips here as well. They seemed to glow with colour.

He would also practice his magic here. There was a small clearing where he could create his balls of light and shield. It was here that he found out that he could make sounds. He tried focussing on condensing a sound wave and releasing the pressure. This created a loud bass pulse. He started practicing with this in different frequencies and pitch and could emulate certain sounds with this, such as sounds that emulated kick drum and snare. This was not perfect though. He decided to weaponize this ability and started creating as many shockwaves as he could in a small amount of time. This developed into pumping magic into a condensed space and that created an explosion. He called this the Sound Bomb. He visualised condensing the air so much that the energy erupted at supersonic speeds. His largest explosion he created shook the ground and made a crater. He would eventually buy scrap metal and other materials then blowing them up, just to see how strong he could get. He could create up to four small explosions and set them off at different times. He thought this could be used to disorient enemies without hurting them. He combined the Sound Bomb with the shield.

He could now create a shield that was like a half dome, facing forward. He thought that in time he could make the shield cover him from all directions. The shield was stronger when smaller though. He did not know how powerful, or how resistant it was. The half dome shield was about the same size as when the car crashed into him, so he reasoned that it would be able to stop the same amount of force. He could create the Sound Bomb when the shield was active and did not have to drop it when casting. This was a major advantage. He knew that wizards had to drop a protective shield to cast magic. The shield and spell were both cast with the wand so this is when they would be vulnerable. However, trained teams could work in pairs in which one could cast protective shields and the other offensive spells.

While Mat was thinking about the tactics behind his magic against other wizards, he came up with the idea of creating his own mercenary company. This mercenary company would be trained by the muggle armed forces. In all the information he had on the Wizarding World, tactics didn't seem to play any part in their thinking. War was not won by two forces smashing into each other and hoping for the best. It was about intelligence, tactics and teamwork. Mat's idea was to train muggles how to take down wizards in combat. He was sure that a wizard or witch couldn't stop a bullet, well they could, but a shield would already have to be up. Imagine a sniper hidden in Diagon Alley and taking out a prime target without them knowing where it came from? When the wizards use fancy spells and are stood in the open, Mat's team could take them out, fast, and then disappear. At least that was the theory.

Wizard and muggle teams would have to be created too. The magic caster could have many functionalities, such as field medics, shield bearers, artillery or a wide range of spells that could be used to incapacitate an enemy. Another role that wizards could have with muggles would be infiltrators, sabotage experts or information gatherers. These roles could be utilised with both muggles and wizards and both would be effective. There would have to be major reprogramming of the wizarding brain for them to work in unison like this. Mat would have to get in contact with ex forces to create his mercenary company. This would have to come later, he wanted his family to live in ignorance for a bit longer.

When Mat was planning on how to include muggles in his world, he had thought about using explosives. Because Mat could use his shockwaves and cast the Lumos charm, he thought of using them both together, to create a magical flashbang. This was not very hard to do. He had already cast them both and were both powerful. The hard part was to make the Lumos at a distance so he wouldn't be affected by it. He would, in the future, create more tactics to combat magicians. Muggles appeared more inventive than wizards, they could think outside of the box. They were not all set in their ways and could create something unique.

Mat decided to take his SATs when he turned 10. He felt he needed time to prepare for the future, it would be a year from his birthday when he could visit Diagon Alley and could start studying magic. Unfortunately, Mat could not access or re-create other spells. He believed that this was because he did not now how the spell worked. With his Lumos spell, he created a golden ball of light, the real Lumos would be a pure white light and so was not the same spell. With the others, he would need to feel the spell when cast, as well as heard the sound it makes to truly comprehend it.

Christmas came and went, and the new year had started. The 10-year-old Mat was Muay Thai training with Tom in the ring. The gym his family had built had a full-sized boxing ring, a full set of punching bags; like speed balls and a personally made body punch bag. They were doing pads. Mat was focussed on his punching when he had gone into a trance. He could see his own golden aura splitting the air and the see the shockwaves when hitting the pads. It looked like a splash of gold when each punch hit. He couldn't help but smile at this. Tom changed to legs, and he could see the same with knees and feet. Tom then changed it so Mat was using all his limbs on the pads, from knees, to punches, to elbows, he could see a splash of gold every time he hit the pad. He had never noticed this before.

After a rest, they were practicing clinching, and this is where he figured out that he could read peoples movements with his Sine Sight. With his hands, he could feel the vibrations within Tom and could read where he was about to move. It seemed like a sort of foresight when touching someone. He could feel the blood being pushed around Tom's body, the beating of his heart and each breath he took. He could successfully counter each of Tom's manoeuvres and enjoyed great success when in the clinch.

Both Mat and Tom were both panting from exertion at the end of this exercise. Tom passed a bottle of water to Mat "I've never known anyone with such reflexes before. You countered everything I did in the clinch, it was almost unnatural." Mat flinched at that "I knew someone in Thailand who could do something like that. He was partially deaf and blind, he had to rely on vibrations and touch to fight and move around. He could walk around a pitch-black room and not bump into anything. He was the best when clinching, everyone stayed away from him when sparring." Mat nodded at that, Tom continued "I think that's what you could do, the guy taught this, but he had a natural affinity for it, he was faster than everyone else and had a sixth sense, almost as if he could sense where the next move was going to come."

Mat looked thoughtful, then nodded "yeah, it feels like I knew what you were going to do, like I could feel your muscles move with my hands and knew how to react. It was only because you had taught me how to manoeuvre that I could do it that well though. I wouldn't know what to look for otherwise."

Tom agreed with that "yeah, that guy had to be taught too, but once he knew what to do, it never went away. Like most people who got there, they train for a few months, go home and then come back the next year. I stayed there for five years altogether. He came back the next year and because he went to his local gym twice a year, he got better." He had his hand on his chin looking away, his eyes distant.

"What you thinking Tom?" Mat leaned against the ropes sipping the water.

Tom turned his head to Mat, "I'm just thinking on how I can help you improve."

"Well" Mat replied, "I do Jiu Jitsu as well don't I? Maybe I can hone it there as well?"

Tom beamed at that, "that's a brilliant idea! Do you think you can always feel what is going to happen or when you are fighting?" He asked.

"I think its when my blood is pumping, like an adrenaline type thing" Mat answered.

"Hmmm that does make sense, okay, try to keep training it, hopefully you will better over time. Right then, lets spar." They both placed their protective gear on and went for it. Mat decided to activate his magic and could feel, to a lesser extent, Tom's movements. Mat knew he could do more with this.

Two months had gone by and Mat could now fully access his Sine Sight and always used it passively. He was used his magic while doing it, but it used less and less over time with the more he used it. Or it was his magical core growing, he did not know which. He started practicing Tai Chi in the temple structure in the garden. He attempted to feel the world around him while moving, like he could when fighting. He had a sense of what was around him but could fully access his Sine Sight when doing this. He had heightened senses though which was a good thing. He discovered that when moving, it was harder to access the Sight, but just walking or sat down, he could access it without really trying too.

Jiu Jitsu was paying dividends when sensing an opponent's movement. He could feel where they were going to move and countered them instinctively. This was a relatively minor ability but could come in handy in a life and death situation.

He had perfected the flashbang as well. He did this by focussing a Lumos next to an explosion and activating them at the same time. He practiced this in a densely packed bushy area to get it right. At first, there was a lot of force being projected from the explosion. He tried to change the pitch of the sound and this changed the physical effect. The higher the pitch the less physical damage he could do. More damage was done by lowering the pitch and condensing the magic being used. Mat had attempted to manipulate sounds around him so he could basically be a walking speaker, but he could not create that and could only emulate a kick drum and snare sounds. It was good to know one's limits.

One aspect that he did find was awesome, was that if he lowered the frequency in a Sound Bomb and pumped massive amounts magic into it; he could create a miniature earthquake. The Sound Bomb did not create a massive explosion but was more of a rumble that shook the earth. This, Mat thought, could be used to unbalance a large number of enemies in a tightly packed area. He named this the Earthquake Bomb.

He found some land to work on these abilities and finally got access to scrap materials. The Sound Bomb he could make powerful enough to bend steel, the best bomb he made he managed to flip a Peugeot 306 a metre in the air. He nearly feinted from exerting too much energy with that. He would run through his new scrapyard causing explosions, rumbling the earth and sending flashbangs in places where someone could hide. This was his assault course.

Mat had passed his SATs with flying colours, getting some of the best in the country for that year. It was in the middle of July. He was meditating in the temple in the garden and was organising his thoughts. He had accessed The Village and was preparing his mind defences. The motte and bailey had been converted into solid, limestone castle. Complete with crenulations, towers, a single massive gatehouse, moat and thick walls. There was a winding path leading from the Village up to this fortified structure. It looked menacing from below. The keep was a single rounded structure, shaped almost like a cog. He had created a labyrinth underneath where he kept most of his precious memories from this world. This was a ruse though. His most important memories were hidden in the forest near the mountains, nowhere near The Village.

The other structures had more details and were becoming more corporeal. He could not access the Tower that was forming, that did have clear features on it now though. It was ivory white with a golden inlayed pattern running from the bottom to the top, the top was slightly mushroom shaped which turned into a tall spike at the top, almost like St basil's Cathedral in Moscow. The Library and university were becoming one with each other over time. The Temple had hardly changed. This was probably because this is where Mat spent most of his time organising thoughts when meditating. The houses were also improved with little titbits which gave the illusion that they were lived in. The sun had now turned a golden yellow with a pink centre and pulsed vibrant purple solar flares. It was still void of life in The Village and so Mat started to develop what he called Shadows in his mind.

They were representations of creatures and aliens from fantasy, horror or sci fi. He included Tryanids from Warhammer, the xenomorph from Alien, Witches from Left 4 Dead 2, The Gentlemen from Buffy and other creatures from the muggle fantasy world. He decided not to include any creatures from the magical world because anyone invading his mind would be familiar with them. He figured that the intruder would be a witch or wizard and would not know what the muggle fantasy creatures were if they saw them. He could use this to strike fear into the intruder and defeat them. He set up traps and scenarios if he was ever invaded. He decided not to include beings such as the Chaos Gods… just in case.

Time flew past and Mat was developing his skills at a steady pace. He felt that he should not push himself too hard or attempt to develop anything new. He believed that he should master a small number of skills now so he could focus on the wide spectrum of spells he would be learning at Hogwarts. His senses, speed and stamina were sharper and could hold his own against Tom, though they never really fought competitively and Tom still beat him consistently. The Sine Sight was becoming sharper and could, if he focussed, see the heartbeat of somebody stood directly in front of him. He could control the Sound Bomb to such an extent that they could manipulate it to cause a specific amount of damage. Flipping a car still took a lot of energy out of him still. The Earthquake Bomb he developed to be a distraction. He would use it in areas where he was avoiding or going to attack. The distracted enemies would be much easier to deal with or avoid if they were constantly trying to stay standing or were dodging falling materials. The flashbang could be directed and could focus it into a cone shape in any direction he chose. He was greatly enjoying this sound manipulation. The shield progressed no further in regard to the size, however, he could feel it was stronger than before.

It quickly came to 2nd December 1999, it was Mat's 11th birthday and he woke up at 6am like clockwork, he now slept from 2am till 6am, 4 hours was more than enough. He meditated for approximately 3 hours a day to rest his mind. He did his usual business when he got up and went downstairs in zombie mode, grabbed some food and munched it in silence. Both his parents got up at around 7, they were all milling around the house waiting for the meeting with the wizard or witch who they were told to expect on Mat's birthday. Both his mum and dad were obviously anxious, trying to start small talk and failing majestically. It was at 9 o'clock on the dot when someone knocked on the door.

His dad basically ran to the door, his mum coming out of the kitchen to stand in the living room with Mat. They heard some mumbling of voices in the entryway and made out his dad say "please come in." A very strict looking woman in a dark green robe and a green tartan hat, walked through. She had square rim glasses and looked very prim expression, and her hands were folded at the front. She looked around the living room and locked eyes with Mat, her expression changed completely. She was an older woman, probably in her sixties and quite attractive. The attire and demeanour screamed that this was not a woman to cross.

She crooked a small smile and pulled out an envelope made from cream coloured parchment that had eloquent green writing on the front and a wax seal on the back. She handed it to Mat and said "Mr Lawson, I am Professor Minerva McGonagall. And I am the deputy headmistress at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I have come to offer you a place there, and introduce you to the world of magic." She had a stern yet polite Scottish accent and stood there with the expectation of waiting for something to happen. She seemed surprised when Mat calmly nodded, strolled up to her, took the letter and muttered a "thanks" then sat down to read it.

As Mat took the letter, he could not help but smile and get excited. This was where it all started, whatever it was. He pulled the wax seal with a crack and opened it. It read:

"HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,

Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Mr Lawson,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress"

Mat's smile got wider and wider the more he read. It was surreal, he looked up at McGonagall, "so, what next?"

Professor McGonagall looked shocked for a moment but quickly stamped down on that emotion. "You don't seem surprised to find that you're a wizard Mr Lawson." She stated.

Mat shrugged, "I presume you wasn't notified that I was hit by a car and had a burst of accidental magic which protected me, and then some magical police came and spoke to us about it?"

McGonagall put her hand over her heart and somehow stood even straighter, her lip forming a very thin line, "I most certainly was not, when did this happen?" she said in a very stern voice.

"Erm, about 3 years ago, I presume the government doesn't talk to the school then?" Mat replied with a little smirk.

"They are supposed to notify us of every bout of accidental magic." She huffed "Rest assured Mr Lawson, that I will look into the matter immediately." She placed her hand down, "I presume that you know all about the Wizarding World?"

"Yes Miss, well, two policemen came and spoke to us for about 2 hours and left, answering all our questions, I feel quite prepared." Mat then turned the parchment over "so where do I get all these materials from then?"

McGonagall's mouth hooked up at the corner showing a hint of a smile "those 'policemen' who came here are Auror's, they are highly trained investigators and the first line of defence against the Dark Arts, you would do well to remember that." She sternly looked at Mat who nodded again, waiting for her to carry on "I could meet you at the Leaky Cauldron, on Charing Cross Road, in London and could show you around Diagon Alley. This is where all the supplies can be bought for the rest of your time at Hogwarts. I trust you could find your own way to the Leaky Cauldron?"

All three of the Lawsons nodded at that. Mat's dad mumbled "bloody London, why London?"

McGonagall chose to ignore this, "excellent, on Monday 7th December is good for you? Very well. I will see you shortly. I will now go to the Ministry of Magic to give them a piece of my mind." She turned to Mat's parents "good day Mr & Mrs Lawson" then to Mat "Mr Lawson." Then turned and walked out of the house.

"I feel sorry for whoever she goes after" Mumbled Mats dad, both Mat and his mum snickered.


	7. Chapter 7

On Monday, 7th December, Mat was up way before his parents and was munching his cereal when they came downstairs. It was the day he was going to Diagon Alley. He couldn't contain his excitement, he felt every bit an 11-year-old that morning. Me meditated, waiting for his parents to be ready. When they were, they made the trip to London. It was a boring 4-hour train ride from Doncaster. They had to get the 6am train to be there at 10 to meet Professor McGonagall. They got first class tickets and were seated in luxury at a table. They had snacks, a full breakfast and were comfortable reading a book or watching the green of England fly past them. They passed through a number of cities and towns, stopping at one or two like Leicester, Northampton and Nottingham; it was the train from Edinburgh to London after all.

It was a bitter day, not snowing, just cold and miserable. The sky seemed like a grey expanse that sucked all life out of the world. Travelling to London, the weather did not ease at all. They were all dressed for the occasion. Mat had a pair of jeans, white trainers, burgundy woolly jumper and a dark green thick parker coat with a black bobble hat. His mum was dressed in a black thick coat, black jeans, hiking boots, massive pink scarf and bobble hat and ivory white woolly jumper. His dad was in a navy-blue coat, thick black jumper, blue jeans and black hiking boots. He looked quite menacing with his size. All had spare gloves if they needed it. Only his mum brought a bag, she is always the one that was prepared for any eventuality.

Mat could never remember going to London when he was younger in his old life and had no idea what to expect in the late 90's/early 2000's. He used to go to football with his mates after 2005, the Troubles had fully died down in 2001 and London had changed. At the end of the 90's, new buildings had been built and the London Skyline was changing. The new builds were already starting to look run down when Mat started to go in 2005. They decided to do some sightseeing while they were there. The Millennium Wheel looked pretty cool, but it was just a big white Ferris wheel after all. They saw Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and drove past St James's Park and Buckingham Palace. It should have been a 16-minute drive from Kings Cross to Charing Cross. With the little tour, it took 45 minutes. They thought it was quite boring to be honest. York is much prettier.

The nice taxi man, called Ahmed, had to drive past the Leaky Cauldron to park up at Charing Cross Station. Mat saw the pub straight away. His parents didn't even notice it. Ahmed wished Mat a good luck towards his interview. They had told him he was going to one for a prestigious school in Scotland. He opened the doors for them, and they tipped him way above what he charged, he did share a lot of information with them about London and the buildings within on the little tour; it was money well spent. Mat's parents asked Mat if he knew where to go, he pointed to where the Leaky Cauldron was and looked in that direction but couldn't see anything.

"What you pointing at Mat? Its just an abandoned building there." Mat's dad looked confused, he had to shake his head and refocus his eyes after looking at the building.

"Huh," Mat responded, "Mum, can you not see it either?"

"No hun I can't, what do you see?" she looked as equally confused as his dad, a man was walking down the street, she noticed him but as soon as he entered the Leaky Cauldon, she looked away and back to Mat.

"Did you not see that guy walk into it?"

Mat's parents looked utterly confused now. His dad was looking everywhere, he appeared to be on guard. His hands were out of his pockets, and his left hand was squeezing into a fist. His mum was ringing her hands. Mat then took his mums hand and made them both follow him. As soon as they were directly outside it and Mat then pointed it out, his parents were staring at it gobsmacked, both had their mouths open in an 'o' shape. His dad let out a half squeak and half laugh. Mat, amused with their antics, just pushed the door open and walked inside. It was mainly a corner building, black dingy windows that curved round and a door next to a wall. There was a pub sign outside with the words, "The Leaky Cauldron".

The pub was dingy but had a welcoming feeling. There was a fireplace on the far side, opposite the bar with a number of tables in between. Some tables had benches, others stools while others had chairs. There were pictures hooked up to the wall, a cast iron chandelier and whitewashed walls. It looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years. There was a smell of stale beer and food, it wasn't that bad. It was separated into several side rooms, some more well lit and comfortable than the others. There were a few people inside, two shady looking characters in a corner, an old woman at the bar talking to the barkeep and then the barkeep himself. As soon as they entered, their eyes locked onto the woman walking towards them, Professor McGonagall.

She held out her hand to Mat first, he shook it and then she shook his parents' hands afterwards. "Welcome to the Wizarding World Mat, Mr & Mrs Lawson, if you would follow me, we shall head into Diagon Alley."

They didn't really have a chance to agree, she turned on her heel and started walking to the rear entrance of the pub. She waited outside in a bricked courtyard and stopped then faced them standing at the far wall. "This is the entrance to Diagon Alley, I will show you how to get into here, afterwards, Mat here" she gestured to Mat "could open it with his wand, like so." She tapped around a hole, five times, on five separate bricks. Mat had seen this in the films, seeing it in real life was awesome. He said so as well. "Indeed Mr Lawson, I'm sure you are looking forward to learning magic at Hogwarts?" Mat nodded enthusiastically, a small grin twitched the side of her mouth "excellent, I'm sure that you will do us proud." All eyes were on the bricks opening up and folding into themselves, creating an archway into a bustling, ripped right out of a Charles Dickens on acid, Christmas fairy tale land. There was bunting and wreaths everywhere, floating candles and snow that disappeared before it landed. The shops were all decorated with the classic Christmas style decorations in green and red and gold. The odd angled stores that, by rights, should not be staying upright, only added to the festive feeling of the alley. And an alley it was, it was one long street with stores on either side and some odd market stores space intermittently on the street. There were people mingling everywhere, they would not look out of place in Victorian London. It was a very surreal experience stepping through that threshold. The smell of cinnamon, roast chestnuts and mince pies was strong here. It felt like a themed Christmas market area they set up in the big cities.

McGonagall took them down the alley, pointing shops out here and there. She told them that Ollivander's is the place to get Mat's wand; Flourish and Blott's is where to get course books; Slug & Jitter's Apothecary is where to get the potion ingredients from; Wiseacres Wizarding Equipment; and finally, Gringotts bank. She gave a quick overview of each shop and stopped outside Madame Malkins "this is where you get your school robes from, I trust that you have brought the list that came with the letter? Yes? Good, this is where you get the rest of the school uniform from too. Now I apologise for not staying longer but I am meeting quite a number of other muggleborn's today who are doing the same as you. Then I have other duties at Hogwarts, my work never ends" she gave the family a small nod and turned away, they watch her head back to the Leaky Cauldron.

"So" Mat said, "where too first?" He turned from where McGonagall headed, then to his parents.

"Let's go to the bank first, lad, we need to convert our money into…galleons? Yes, galleons, I don't like the idea of lugging loads of gold coins around." Mat's dad said, he pulled a face at the last part, he turned toward to Gringotts.

"Yeah, that's a good idea dad, then we can go on a massive shopping spree" mat had a huge grin on his face and was rubbing his hands together "I can't wait to start."

"Calm down Matthew, yes?" his mum placed a hand on his shoulder, "we can always come down at a later date if it turns out we miss something".

"Okay mum, fair enough" Mat looked a little deflated but still looking at anything and everything around them. The three of them walked up to Gringotts bank. The bank was a rickety looking building, the pillars appeared to barely hold it up, they leaned in every angle imaginable. The stone was an old off-white colour and had small windows in all three stories, the building stretched far back down two side streets that appeared to contain housing. They first walked from the outside into a small antechamber and past the small statues with halberds. One of the statues moved its head to watch them pass and Mat jumped, "not statues" he thought. They noticed an engraving on the silver doors that led into the main building, it read:

"Enter, stranger, but take heed

Of what awaits the sin of greed

For those who take, but do not earn,

Must pay most dearly in their turn.

So if you seek beneath our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there."

"Well, that's a warning if I ever saw one" Mat's dad mumbled, both Mat and his mum agreed. He pushed the door open in a lavishly decorated, bustling bank. The floor was marble, and the décor was decorated with a deep, dark, ancient looking wooden counters and marble walls, the same colour as the floor, a rich, almost brown colour. Small creatures were milling around or counting money on counters they clearly had to use stairs to climb on. Mat knew about goblins, he remembered them in the movies, but like with actual magic, seeing one in real life was something else. Comparing them to the on-screen versions, these more vicious looking, slimmer and somehow more elegant. They were obviously humanoid and rarely stood higher than four feet, the oldest among them appeared to be taller. They varied in looks, ranging from long sharp noses with long sharp ears to short stumpy ears and a human looking nose, they were still obviously goblins though. They had fair skin, long fingers and feet and had sharp, vicious teeth. The movie versions did a fair imitation of them.

Looking around, one never saw an idle goblin, they were either counting, miscellaneous banking duties or talking to one another in their strange language, Gobbledegook, if Mat remembered correctly. Mat looked around to find the closest, free banker, he found one, a younger looking goblin in a 1920's style suit, but with no jacket. It seemed to have black hair tufts coming from its ears, it had a darker skin to its fellows, an almost brown/yellow. Mat and his parents stood in front of it, he was flanked on both sides, they waited patiently. About 20 seconds of waiting, the goblin slowly looked at the three, it bared its teeth. "Welcome to Gringotts, how may I help you?"

Mats mother took over, she felt that a banker speaking to another banker would work well. "Hello, I and my family are just entering the Wizarding World, our son here, Mat" she placed a hand on his shoulder, the goblin looked from her to Mat, "is starting at Hogwarts next year. We would like to open a bank account and get a foothold into this new world, I was hoping that your fine establishment could help guide us in this area, after all, you do seem to be the only financial power around here." She gave him her best smile, careful not to show her teeth, baring the teeth, in some cultures is a sign of hostility.

The goblin raised its eyebrow at the statement, "we can certain help you with this, we will need to know some details about you and your family. Only your son is allowed to own a bank at Gringotts unfortunately, blame the wizards for that, but we can certainly link bank accounts to the muggle world. If this is acceptable, we can start immediately if you would like?" The goblin didn't smile or show any emotion and said all that in a purely business-like tone.

"Certainly, I have prepared a few notes with most of that information, I would like to speak to an accounts manager to organise some investments for my son's future in this world. Could you help me with this as well?" She dove her hand into her bag and dug out a notebook, flipping to the right page she handed it to the goblin.

He nodded, taking it and the Lawson's watched with amusement as the goblins eyebrows slowly rose in surprise. The note contained details of one of the bank accounts which was funded by a couple of the up and coming, big businesses in the muggle world and their names with links to Lawson Enterprises. He coughed, clearing his throat "you are Michael and Sandra Lawson? The founders of Lawson Enterprises? The company that had made many smart investments and become one of the largest companies in Britain in three years?" Mat's Mum just gave a sharp nod at this "wait here please." The goblin said, and jumped off his stool, to an older looking goblin, who then rushed off towards the back to where, Mat assumed were offices.

Around five minutes later, three goblins walked up to the trio, the original teller they spoke too first and two new ones. The one leading them was slightly taller than the others and looked more vicious, he wore an old 20's style suit, with a jacket this time, a monocle and had a more regal baring. His skin was a dark green and had beady, intelligent eyes. He had an average sized nose and ears (for a goblin) and were both sharp, the ears, were pulled back though, he was completely bald. The other was much younger, had a full head of hair, shorter than average and was a light brown colour. He wore a suit as well. "Greeting Master, Mr and Mrs Lawson, I am Roglud, an accounts manager here at Gringotts, you have already met Guragg, and this is Urgott, my assistant. If you would follow me, we can continue you opening a vault with us." The family agreed and followed him to his office. Guragg turned off, back to his pew.

They walked down the hallways, it changed from marble walls and floors to a tile floor and a purposely cut tunnel with doors and other corridors splitting off. It gave off a feeling of going underground, perhaps they were. This cut rock style was sometimes broken by intricately carved busts or friezes that were in the walls. They eventually got to a rather unremarkable door and Roglud opened it, stepping inside. Urgott motioned them to go inside, they did. They all sat down in not too comfortable leather chairs. Urgott broke the silence "I will not beat around the bush here, we have had an eye on your company for a while, you have been making some waves in the financial sector. It would be my pleasure to represent to your family in the Wizarding World. I know Guragg said that only Mat can have a vault here, but we can give you access to it if you would like? Or we could set up an intermediate in the muggle world to make it easier for you. The conversion rate is £6.21 per galleon. We charge a base of 5%. We take any payments owed to Gringotts directly from the vault. Is suitable to you?"

Mrs Lawson agreed, "that is most satisfactory, I am glad that you are this forward with your business, it is extremely annoying the way the financial world works in our world"

Ugrott grinned "we at Gringotts always prefer to be upfront, we do like to play the game in the muggle world though. The Wizards do not seem to be very… adept with that sort of thing. I would advise you to get an expanding pouch for your money to be kept in, it is feather light as well. Ours at Gringotts are heavily charmed to be unnoticeable and next to be impossible to be opened if they are stolen. They are 100 galleons each, that is none negotiable. Depending on the size and security of the vault, the payments per annum to have a vault with us is from 10 to 300 galleons. A 10 galleon vault is a small safe like vault, sort of like a walk in wardrobe with limited security. A 150 galleon vault is larger, small room sized vault with good security, this is the most popular one. A 300 galleon vault is tope of the line, the best security and a room the size of a house. There are others in between what I just said, the choice is yours. Also you could pay 10,000 galleons now and the vault is effectively your families properties until the end of time."

After a quick discussion they agreed to buy the pouch and then have the 10,000 galleon vault. They also decided to transfer £2,000,000 into the vault, £1,000,000 for Urgott to invest into what he thinks could turn a profit, and the rest for Mat and all his expenses for while he at Hogwarts. Turns out that £2,000,000 is 322,061 galleons, minus the 5% of course. They placed a fair amount into the pouch. Signed the documents and left Gringotts, eager to get shopping. It was 11:30, they decided to get some grub and then start the shop. They went to a little café called Sandy's Sandwiches. They ate their fill and went straight to the Madame Malkin's.

Mat and his family went inside. They were instantly greeted by madame Malkin herself. She was a squat, friendly woman, she was wearing a periwinkle blue robe that covered her from neck to toe, shoes the same colour as her robes could be seen poking out when she walked. She had greying hair turned up in a bun, and glasses shaped like bug eyes. She walked up to them with a large, friendly smile. "Hello, hello! How can I help you dears today?"

Mat and his family couldn't help but smile back, she radiated friendliness. "Mat here is starting Hogwarts next year and needs his robes and everything else for that school year", Mats mum said to Madame Malkin.

"Oh! Another new student! Always a pleasure. Muggleborn I presume? Yes, thought so, come in dear, another new starter is having the final measurements as we speak, she will be done soon. Why don't you come into the back dear and we will sort out what you need?" She ushered Mat into the back and turned back to his parents. "There is nothing here for you two to do other than be bored, there is a waiting room there or you can come back in 15 minutes, the choice is yours." She turned away and followed Mat into the back. They chose to do some window shopping.

Mat walked into the back. There was a lady who appeared to be in her late 20's, diligently working on a girl stood on a circular pedestal. She looked awkward and blushed when she saw Mat walk in. Mat gave her a small wave, she waved back. She was shorter than Mat, had jet black hair, deep brown eyes and was of a clear Eastern Asian descent. "Hi!" Mat said.

She replied with a "hi" back "are you starting Hogwarts this year too?" she asked

"Erm, yeah I am, I'm Mat, Mat Lawson."

"I'm Cho Chang" Mat blinked, his gears working in his head. Wasn't she older than Harry? What the hell is going on? Before Mat could overthink and make a fool of himself, he took a deep breath and focussed back to the present. He would need to think about that later. "are you okay Mat?" Cho asked.

"Oh! Yeah, sorry, I zoned out a bit there" apologised and shook his head clear.

Cho giggled "Its ok, is this your first time as Diagon Alley?"

"Yeah it is, it's a bit overwhelming but so cool too!" Mat exclaimed. Madame Malkin came in and silently started measuring mat up for robes.

"I suppose it is," said Cho, "I come here a lot with my parents, my mum works at the ministry."

"Ah yeah" Mat replied "are you looking forward to Hogwarts?" he asked

"Of course, I'm not sure what house I will be in though. I hope its not Slytherin. My mum was in Ravenclaw, so I would like to be there too."

"What's wrong with Slytherin?" Mat asked, faking ignorance.

"Well nothing really, but many of the pureblood kids go in there, also most of the Death Eaters were from that house too." She scrunched her face up as she said Death Eaters. Mat decided to play the ignorant mugglborn again.

"What's a Death Eater? Sounds like a heavy metal band."

Cho blushed and stuttered out "th-they were, there was a war about 10 years ago and they were the soldiers in the enemy army." She looked away from Mat to the floor. The lady who was measuring her up for her robes had finished. She said so and Cho jumped off.

"Sorry for making you uncomfortable, Cho, I really don't know anything about this world. Is there anything you can recommend me to read so I know the history of current events?"

Cho huffed, and rolled her eyes "such a Ravenclaw thing to say." She turned back to Mat, "yes there is, but I am not sure how true it is, 'The Victory of the Boy-Who-Lived', I," she coughed into her hand "I have to go now, see you at school." With that she hurried out of the shop.

Mat turned to Madame Malkin, "was is something I said?"

"No, no dear, you did nothing wrong, most people don't like talking about it. It's still in most peoples living memories after all, she does bring up a good point though, that book has a good overview of the events leading up to You-Know-Who's death by Harry Potter." She smiled and carried on with her job. She didn't speak further and finished just in time for Mat's parents to arrive.

She asked Mat to try on some robes then, "I feel stupid, I feel like I can't move in them!"

"Yes dear, most muggleborn's say the same thing, you get used to it eventually, you could get a cloak and wear it over your other clothes, I'm not sure what the school will say about that though." Mat agreed to try that idea, he got black trousers, a shirt and blazer with a black cloak that, to the untrained eye looked like a robe.

Mat grinned and thanked madame Malkin "this is much better, thank you, what about the other things I need for school? Like the dragonhide gloves and stuff?"

"I can get all that too, I need to ask you though, what material would you like your clothes made from? I go from cotton, to wool to acromantula silk. The gloved and shoes can range from the best, dragonhide, to the cheapest, but still effective, troll skin."

Mat turned to his parents, "what do you think?"

Mat's mum replied, "you will be going to school for nearly a year in Scotland, I think you should have the best there is and take some of your normal clothes with you." She then turned to Madame Malkin, "the most expensive are the best and most durable I presume?"

"Of course madam, not many things can pierce dragon hide, of course most of the clothes we sell can be enchanted to be unrippable, self-repairing and expandable so they last longer. These enchantments do wear out after a while though." Malkin answered

"Very well. Get Mat the highest quality items, including gloves and some shoes and boots too. Make sure that everything is enchanted to last as long as possible."

Madame Malkin, to her benefit, didn't even react to what they ordered, but the could tell that she was elated by it. "Fantastic. Your items will be ready in approximately 7 days, could either come to pick them up or I can get them delivered by owl."

The Lawsons agreed to get is delivered and Mat would get three cloaks for daily school wear, all of them made from acromantula silk; dragon hide boots; shoes and a winter cloak. Apparently a Chinese firebelly hide constantly gives off heat. They left the store happy and went to Ollivanders.

Ollivanders was a dark looking shop on the outside. It had grimy windows and had what used to be blue paint which has long since faded to black. Through the dusty windows, one could see a wand on a pedestal, covered in dust on a faded velvet sheet. The sign outside said "Ollivanders, established 282 B.C." The Lawsons entered the shop. A bell rang as the door opened. A man, presumably Ollivander, was stood at his counter fiddling with something. He looked up as they entered. "Hello, hello, welcome, welcome. A new wizard I see, here for your wand yes? Yes. I thought so. Now let's get a look at you."

He came toward the family, he appeared to ignore Mat's parents completely. He had pure white hair that stuck out in all directions. A suit that looked to be from the 18th century, complete with ruffles and old wrinkled skin, he had pleasant voice and seemed rather… eccentric. As soon as he stopped in front of Mat, a tape measure appeared from nowhere and started measuring Mat at the most random of places, his ears, the bit between the nostrils, thumbnail. It appeared to have no logic at all. Mat just stood there dumbfounded yet watched the tape measure amusedly. He hummed and aah'd while walking around Mat, "I see I see, lets start you off with a basic wand Mr Lawson."

"How did you know my name?" Mat asked, guardedly "we haven't said one word since we walked in." Mat knew that Ollivander was a very knowledgeable wizard, but it struck a nerve and freaked him out that he knew their names before they even said anything.

"Ahh my boy, I know all my customers, even before they buy their wands, all it takes is one look and I can see who they are. The challenge for me is to match the wizard to the wand, this is a thing I cannot foresee." He walked away and pulled a box from a shelf that appeared to defy gravity. He blew some cobwebs and dust off the box. He turned and walked over to Mat. "Oak and dragon heart string, 10 inches, give it a swish." Mat did so, and fire shot out and exploded on the ceiling "nope! Not that one."

Mat was shocked with the reaction of the wand, it did feel off though. He couldn't explain it. Ollivander came back with a new wand, "Pinewood and unicorn hair, 10.5 inches, nice and supple" he gestured for Mat to swish it again. Mat hesitated, but he did so and created a small shockwave which blew up a vase. "Not that one either, not to worry, we will find you match eventually."

"Mr Ollivander," Mat said "the last two didn't feel right, there was something off about them, it was quite odd, I knew they wouldn't work before I tried it."

"Hmmm, most curious indeed, let me try a couple more, lets see what you think then." He was humming when he went away, he came back with three boxes this time. "Let's try this one, black walnut, with phoenix feather, 9 ¾ inch." He held it out to Mat, Mats hand hovered over it before taking it.

"No, it doesn't feel right either." He placed it back in the box.

"Very interesting, I'm not sure how you can tell what wand is good for you. It is a rare talent you have there. Tell me, can you do wandless magic?" He held Mat's gaze, when Mat didn't answer "it's fine my boy, your secret is safe with me, I never reveal my client's secret's, especially when it comes to their wand. Finding the perfect wand for you is a matter of pride for me. It wouldn't do well for a customer to leave unsatisfied, now would it?" He arched an eyebrow at Mat.

Mat sighed, feeling that he had to tell him what he could do, "yes I can, I can make shields and explosions."

A thoughtful expression came over Mr Ollivander's face "I thought so. Shields and explosions eh? Ah! I have an idea" he scrambled toward some boxed up a ladder and pulled out another box then came toward Mat again. "Pear Wood with horned serpent horn, 10 inches and resilient." Mat took the wand and could feel that half of it matched him. He couldn't tell what but there was a feeling. He told Ollivander as such. "Fantastic! Now we are getting somewhere!" He disappeared then came back with another wand "try this one." He didn't say what it was this time.

Mat took it, "yes, it's the same feeling, but this feels more hostile, like half of it agrees with me, the other hates me."

"Yes, yes I thought as much, it is Pear Wood and Phoenix Feather. An unusual combination." Ollivander got more and more excited, and Mat started to get frustrated, 10 minutes went by and he tested different wands with the most random of cores, including kneasle hair, troll whisker, kelpie hair and thunderbird feather. He was quite upset that the thunderbird feather didn't suit him, it would have been pretty sweet. Ollivander then brought out a box with a number of small boxes and vials stored within. He gave them to Mat one after the other. Two boxes and a vial in, he found something that resonated within him. It was a vial that seemed to have some sort of material inside. It glowed with a cool, ethereal blue. The material seemed to move on its own, constantly swirling and giving off more of the strange otherworldly light.

Ollivander carried on giving Mat boxes and vials, until, after six more tries he found a box with a stand of hair inside, it was a golden hair. It looked unremarkable but Mat could feel a singing coming from it. Mat closed his eyes and felt the magic that was coming from the hair. "That is alkonost Hair Mr Lawson, the alconost are a creature native to Russia and are known to lure people by their singing. Quite fierce if you interrupt them. The other one is a Banshee Wisp. A banshee is a creature that is native to Europe and lives on swampland, if threatened it screams at its attacker, the scream could easily kill a man. This is very unusual. Rarely have I had to make a wand with two cores. I have never used these two cores for any of my wands either. It will be my pleasure to make this wand for you Mr Lawson. Now, let me get on with my work. I will deliver it to you in person in one week!" And with that he ushered the family out of the shop and locked the door.

"Huh, that was weird." Mat said, looking around Diagon Alley. "Bookshop next?" he asked his parents, they both just shrugged and nodded, following Mat, it had been a strange day for them.

Flourish and Blotts was a bookworm's heaven. And an OCD's nightmare. Books were stacked everywhere, they were barely hanging on to the shelves. The piles of books seemed to be barely staying upright. Some were at nearly a 45-degree angle. Everything in the Wizarding World appeared to defy the laws of physics. Something else to place in the book about the Wizarding World and how weird it was. He was here to collect one of every book in the shop. He would need some sort of filing system for it and get them delivered to his house. Luckily, Flourish and Blotts was not busy that day. Most people in Dagon Alley appeared to be just milling around or getting food. It was about 3pm now though, maybe the wizarding populace don't shop late?

There was a woman at the counter, she looked to be in her early thirties. She had long brown hair pulled back into a pony tail and had a cream coloured blouse and a black skirt with a badge on her left breast. She was reading a book on the counter, looked up and said "hello", then continued reading. The three started looking around the shop. They found all the books for Hogwarts, that was the main mission completed. They placed them in a basket which, no matter how many books you put in, it never got heavier, and you could still place more in it. They marvelled at it for a good 30 seconds and then carried on shopping. Mat eventually walked up to the lady, she gave him a friendly smile as she sensed him walking up to her. "How can I help you?" She asked.

"I would like one of everything please" Mat replied.

The lady, according to her name badge was called Linda, blinked "erm…what?"

"I would like one of every book you have in here please. Would that be a problem Miss?"

"No, no problem at all, we have never had an order so big before. I presume you would like them all delivered to your home?" She started wringing her hands nervously and looked to Mat's parents for confirmation. They both nodded to her and she relaxed a little bit. They ordered every copy in the shop and made it so that they had different deliveries by each subject by next week. Mat took his first year textbooks home. After Flourish and Blotts, they went to Terry's Trunks.

As the name suggested, it sold trunks. It also sold other items such as bags, purses and pouches. Terry, the owner was a tall older gentleman, he wore smart black robes and half-moon glasses. His hair was slicked back and black, slowly going grey. He was stood at the counter next to the entrance. He didn't say anything as they walked in, just tipped his hat and carried on reading the newspaper in front of him. The shop itself had racks and racks of trunks going in alleys, like a warehouse. There were many different types, made from different materials, ranging from ones made from wood, to leather and some that appeared metal. They had price tags on them that looked to be plain cardboard with some string looped through it with the price written on it. They noticed that the trunks at the front varied in price, but one of the lanes the trunks appeared higher quality. The next one less so. They meandered about for a while, looking at the trunks, then Terry walked up to the trio. "Hi there, welcome to Terry's Trunks, can I help you with anything?"

"Yes, my son here is looking for a trunk to last him for his time at Hogwarts." Mat's dad replied.

Terry smiled a welcoming smile and gestured to his shop, sweeping his arm over it "well, I have many trunks here, all of them are of the finest quality. We have trunks that can be expanded to fit a mansion, one that is extremely secure or both or anything in between. It is your choice after all."

"Mat, what do you think?" his dad asked

"Hmmm, I would like one that is secure obviously. But big enough to store all my things with extras." Mat replied.

"Well young Master, we have trunks made from Basilisk skin which is extremely resistant to both magic and physical damage. Our best security we offer is the blood seal. Every time you open the trunk it takes a sample of your blood, you can't feel it though, anyone else who is not authorised to open it will be instantly paralysed until you come and release them with a word of your choice. We also can have it charmed to be featherlight and can be shrunk to the size of a briefcase. There can be up to seven compartments inside the trunk. Each can, as I said, be expanded to fit in a mansion, including the grounds as well. This is the best we can do for you. We can do anything in-between, the choice is yours."

Mat hummed "I would like a trunk with 6 compartments hidden at the bottom, the seventh so look like a normal trunk but expanded inside to hold all my stuff. The 6 compartments would be the size of a room, let's say, 4x4 metres. I will agree to the basilisk skin and blood seal, they seem like the best choices. I would also like the trunk to be shrinkable and featherlight as well please."

"Excellent choice sir. I assure you this trunk will last a lifetime." Terry grinned and shook hands with Mat. Before they counted the money out Mat asked for a Mokeskin pouch. The man smiled happily and pulled one from the counter, told Mat how to use it and handed it to him. Apparently, one could drop anything inside it, think of the item you wanted out of it and it would shoot into your hand. Very handy indeed. It was about the size of the saucer. They counted the money out, 3100 galleons, and left happy.

It was nearing 5pm now and they had to rush to get the other supplies, they went to Slug & Jitters Apothecary first to get the ingredients for potions class. The place stunk. There were… things in jars, most looked like mutated animals. There were vials that were completely unrecognisable, well, until you read the label underneath, then you knew exactly what they were. Luckily the store had a pre prepared Hogwarts box for 10 galleons. They purchased that and left as soon as they could. The lady at the counter didn't seem to care. They were in there for 10 minutes.

They next went to the Cauldron shop, named Potages. It was a pleasant enough place. They had no idea there were so many different styles of cauldrons. They got exactly what they needed from there, a pewter, size 2 Cauldron. The lady who served them was pleasant enough and had seen manty first years before. She was not unpleasant but clearly was not in the mood to chat about cauldrons. She was a middle aged woman, wore white robes with a black pinafore, it had a cauldron emblazoned in the middle. Her mousey brown hair was in a bun, held together with a stick, it could have been her wand. Regardless, they spent about 10 minute there again and left for Wiseacre's.

Wiseacre's Wizarding Equipment was a shop that sold items such as telescopes, magnifying glasses, weighing scales and star charts. They wondered around the shop for a while, it was extremely cluttered, and they felt that every time they turned around, they would knock something over. Everything in there would be best suited to an antiques auction. They were all clearly brand new, just technologically inferior. The telescopes for example would have been top of the range, in 1850. Mat knew that everything seemed to be locked in a time bubble in this world, but this was ridiculous. The best thing they found in there was unbreakable glass phials. Mat thought about learning how to make glass unbreakable. Mum would love some unbreakable wine glasses, and his dad, some unbreakable pint glasses. Regardless, they bought the phials and was served by completely unassuming woman at the counter and they left. Mat decided he would get some better things in the muggle world.

The last shop they went too was Scribbulus Writing Instruments. The stationary was as equally outdated as Wiseacre's. The shop was more organised and had all sorts of writing implements, quills, parchment, inks and other miscellaneous writing stuff. There were sections and were all neatly shelved and presented well. There was nothing in there that mat thought was useful. He did try using some of the quills, but he didn't like the feel of them. He decided to get some normal ones, like Biro's or something, that he knew he could write with. He couldn't wait to get laptops working in the future. They left without even seeing any staff members. Scribbulus was right next to the entrance, or exit, to Diagon Alley.

It was nearly 6pm now and they were all tired, so they decided to have some food and go home. It had been a very productive day indeed. They didn't get everything he wanted, but they could easily go to muggle stores to get something far superior than a 19th century telescope. It was about midnight by the time the family of 3 finally got home. Mat had read a couple of books on the train that he took home directly from Diagon Alley. He went to sleep as soon as he got into bed and dreamt to the future.


	8. Chapter 8

The day after Diagon Alley, Mat did his usual business in the morning and started early studying his few books that he bought from Flourish and Blotts. On the train back from London he had read A History of Magic, Hogwarts: A History and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. He discovered while reading that they appeared to be large books, but the writing was large and so what would be a 200-page book in the muggle world, was a 400-page one in the Wizarding World. For some reason, that annoyed Mat. The information within them was rather interesting and he processed it all before he went to bed. As Mat started on the rest of the compulsory books, he realised one thing, they were all old books. Rarely anything new. They were not teaching the children anything new, just repeated techniques. Adding to the political and general look of the Wizarding World, did they ever create anything new? Was there no innovation? Mat decided to make sure to not follow down this path and resolutely promised himself to push the boundaries.

He read them all in 3 hours. He memorized the spells from the Standard Book of Spells, which was written in 1937. Magical Theory, written in 1969. A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration, written in 1972. None of them were written after the war with Voldemort. He did read The Victory of the Boy-Who-Lived, this was the newest of the books he read. It summed up what he was thinking about the Harry Potter universe. Turns out, the events of Harry Potter hadn't happened yet. The Meeting with Cho Chang in Madame Malkin's cemented this. So now what? What could he do to plan for the future? After reading The Victory of the Boy-Who-Lived he decided to go into the garden and meditate on this.

Mat got comfortable and entered into his Mind Palace. He immediately went straight to The University to the Harry Potter room and started to plan. Firstly, he created a timeline of events he was sure was going to happen. Secondly; create a plan for the future and thirdly; execute the plan.

He knew from experience that plans rarely go to plan and so he needed people that are adaptable in any situation for when the plan does go wrong. He needed trustworthy and dependable allies to delegate tasks, one person could not command an army and win, no matter how small the war was. Information did win wars though, and this is what Mat had in spades. He had to be sneaky about it though, and not give away that he knew the outcome or that he could influence events. Voldemort was a nutter, but he had enough charisma, power and intelligence to nearly win the last time and it was his misfortune when attacking Harry that was his downfall.

The Victory of the Boy-Who-Lived provided little information and most of it was pure conjecture and he knew most of the facts from the movies and books. Therefore, he could plan accordingly and strategize to achieve a less bloody outcome. He created a list of the biggest events to occur and they all have Harry in the middle. The Chamber of Secrets; Goblet of Fire; the Wizarding War; Dumbledore's Army all have Harry as a central character and he barely survives. Mat felt he needed to help him.

He had a few options on how to do this. The main two that come to mind were to stay out of the events to come and work from the shadows or directly influence events. With working from the shadows, he could create influence in both the Wizarding World and muggle world and make it appear that there was a third faction with a mysterious and enigmatic leader. Or, he could help Harry become a better wizard and fight the war himself. A third option popped into Mat's head then. Why not combine the two? He had the resources. Lawson Enterprises would be a billion pond company soon. And that number would only increase. He knew that the Muggle world was way wealthier compared to the Wizards, and companies like Google would earn more GDP than entire countries.

Mat felt a bit depressed as realisation hit him with the short amount of time he had to execute his plans. Voldemort will be reincarnated fully during the Goblet of Fire. That's five years away. Would that be enough time to build an army powerful enough to wage a war? It had to be. He felt he had to tell his parents about the events to come and get them on board. They were the ones in control of the finances. Could the goblins help in some way? Not directly of course, but enough to get them into contact with freelancers and businesses in the Wizarding World? In comparison, getting military equipment and manpower from the Muggle world was easy. Especially with his dad, Mick, having a mate in the forces, serving in the RAF. They would need time though. He decided he would delegate that aspect to his parents and provide assistance when needed. Also, when he knew some spells, enough combat spells that is, he could help train the people his parents would hire. He needed them to be loyal though, so he would demand a screening process to filter the untrustworthy from the trustworthy.

Mat would be starting at Hogwarts in about 8 months. He needed to be prepared. With that in mind, once all the books were delivered, he would devour the information inside them and practice attempting to cast them wandlessly. Starting with the simple school spells and working his way up. He also had to master occlumency, runes and arithmancy. He had a lot to do. He grinned at the challenge ahead. And pulled himself out of his Mind Palace.

Walking into the house and shrugging the small number of snowflakes off his coat, he went in search of his parents. He found them watching TV in the living room. He stood in front of them both, he was a bit worried, knowing that their good times were not going to last as long as he hoped. They immediately sensed that something was wrong, turned the TV off and looked at him.

"Mum, Dad, I have something I need to tell you" Mat looked at them both in the eyes, his hands were shaking a little bit. He took a deep breath and steeled himself.

"Sure hun, what's wrong?" Mat's mum said, leaning forward on the settee. She placed the cup of tea on a coaster on the floor. And that's when Mat spilt the beans. He told them of his past life, of when he was transported back in time, how he knew everything he did. The colour had gone from their faces and they were staring at him. "Is this some sort of joke? You told us that you knew all that you did because you had visions, now you tell me you're form the future?" Her voice started to rise toward the end. Mat nodded.

"I know, I'm sorry mum, it's just… its only recently that I found out about magic, I thought I could help you with money so you could have comfortable lives. I thought that if you lived in ignorance you would be happy and have no worries. I didn't want this. I had 2 kids, a wife, my own company and now I'm here, having to start all over again, with something that I don't really understand." He started shaking and getting angry, so he paced in front of them, after years of not telling anyone, he finally opened up and couldn't stop himself. "You don't know what's to come with the financial crash in a few years. Its going to be horrible and going to hit the whole family hard. I can't be friends with my old friends anymore because they are younger than me by like 30 years! How am I supposed to deal with that? By reading and doing sports it mollifies me and I thought I had everything under control. But with going to Diagon Alley yesterday and realising some things, we are going to be in the middle of a massive war!" He looked at them both of their faces went white and they looked extremely worried now. He dad was clenching his fist as he was known to do when anxious and his mum was twiddling her fingers.

It took a few seconds for the next person to speak. Mat was trying to calm himself down, he hasn't gone on a tangent like that in years. He thought he had it under control. Turns out he was wrong. He needed a confidante, a friend. This could never happen again.

It was his dad that spoke first, in a quiet voice he said, "what war?"

And so Mat told them of what he knew of Harry Potter and the Wizarding World. Of how where he came from it was a fictional book, but now it's real. Everything made sense and so he knew that Voldemort would come back and kick everything off. After the explanation he told them, his expression brooking no argument, "and I am going to fight."

His dad had two emotions on his face, but no doubt was feeling a whole plethora of them. He was a mixture of worry and pride. His mum was different, she was looking at him in pity. He hated that. His dad stood up and walked to him, placed his hand on Mat's shoulder and looked into his eye "I'm here for you son, whatever you need, we're here for you. Aren't we Sandra?"

At the mention of her name she looked at her husband. Then appeared to snap back from wherever she had gone "oh Oh! Yes, we are, sorry" she wiped a tear from her eye and came to Mat, pulling him into a hug. It was a loving, bone crushing hug and he hugged her back. His dad joined in. After about 20 seconds of this. He pulled off and looked up at them both.

"So… What now?" His dad asked. So, Mat told them his plans for the future, and what he decided he needed to do. They stayed up into the early morning planning everything they could think of. Turns out, his uncle had a mate in the Navy as a marine. And his uncle from his mums' side had served in the army. His dad decided to expand the business on the building side and use it as a recruiting tool for people to join them in their own private military. Some warehouses and other large properties could be refurbished for training and so this was decided that that was Mikes job.

They decided that Sandra would be more aggressive on the financial front to fund these endeavours. She was going to invest more in the companies that Mat had told them and was looking out for others on a list he made for the future. They also decided that they would try and work closely with the goblins and attempt a financial war in the Wizarding world against known Death Eaters, such as Lucius Malfoy. They would invest in muggle owned businesses as well to try and get a foothold there. They would also scout potential wizards from Hogwarts and other foreign institutions who are struggling for work. Mat knew that the purebloods were a very bias social class in that backwards place, so they endeavoured to help as many of the muggleborn and halfbloods as possible.

Mat's role was to study and gain as much power as possible. His parents could see that he was up for this fight and so they all decided that he would befriend Harry and train him as much as he could. Preparing him for the future. The only problem they found was the prophesy. But with prophesies, the interpretation was usually flawed. They could deal with that when the time came. Before Mat was to go to Hogwarts, he would study as much as possible, train and prepare for the future. Hopefully they would get in contact with someone who was in need of work to come to them and work for the family as soon as possible. That was sure to expedite Mat's advancement.

Plans were in place and they all agreed to what they needed to do, and three very tired individuals went to bed.

VVVVV

Two days after they had come up with their plans, the delivery of books from Flourish and Blotts arrived. Overall, there were 5623 books delivered. The owner of the store, a Mr Blotts, was immediately brought to the library. Mr Blotts appeared to be a middle-aged man and wore a dark green pointy hat and dark green robes, was clean shaven, wore some half-moon glasses, had rosy cheeks and looked altogether unremarkable. All three of the family was there when he pulled out his wand and plonked a trunk which looked much like Mat's basilisk one, but a faded red colour. He enlarged it and opened the trunk up and asked where they would like them placing. Mat pointed to an empty area, which was about 1/3 of the room. Mr Blotts just nodded and went to work. The books flew out of the trunk, one after the other and arranged themselves on the shelves. Luckily, he had sorted them into categories from encyclopaedias of magical creatures to arithmancy theory and they arranged themselves in order. It took him about 10 minutes to finish, and afterwards he was sweating and breathing heavily. Sandra gave him a Gringotts note and told him to take it to the bank where he could receive his payment in full. She explained that they didn't keep 42,000 gold coins in the house. He nodded in understanding and left. He didn't say much at all. They preferred that.

Afterwards, Sandra got in contact with the Gringotts for someone to enchant their house to place protection wards around the house, now they had an abundance of magical objects there. They made sure to stay on the right side of the law. She also requested their accounts manager to come to enquire about some further business proposals that were in line with the plan. She immediately started buying more shares and the relative passiveness of the company changed overnight.

The goblins noticed the change immediately. The Lawsons made the decision to be upfront about their aspirations when Roglud came with his assistant Urgott, and they found it acceptable. They took note of their surroundings and sat down with the family to discuss further arrangements. The Lawsons and goblins were seated in the living room, the only room that was large enough for five people to sit comfortably. The protection wards were handled first. They got wards that were in the mid-range, no point in making the wizards think they were hiding something, after all, why would a muggle house need top of the line wards? Afterwards they got into the nitty gritty of expansion.

They laid out their plans on what they wanted to do in the Wizarding World. They said that the muggle side of the company was not their business, unless Roglud had invested in it. The goblin agreed, he was still cautious however. "Why do you want to help muggleborns? You have only had access to the Wizarding World for about 2 weeks and are already making aggressive plans to influence it and helping the unfortunate. This is highly irregular," he grinned "not that I don't think it's a good idea to teach those stuck up purebloods a lesson." His grin widened into a feral one.

Mat answered "I have been into Diagon Alley twice" he lied "the second time I had met with a muggleborn in a café who was complaining about being fired from her job so a pureblood could have it. She had worked there for five years. I asked her about her situation, she wasn't being shy about it and was upset. I discovered some things about that world which upset me. We have the money, and now we want the power to help people like me to integrate into the Wizarding World. I don't like discrimination. I told mum and dad about it and we agreed to expand, get more money and influence so we can do philanthropic work, starting in Britain, then expand as much as possible. The Wizarding World is backwards compared to our society so that place needs direct intervention at first. We are wanting to help other people that are affected by bigotry, classism and racism." Mat paused "I also heard about… Him." He gave the goblin a serious look when he said that and Roglud flinched.

Nodding, Roglud said "very admirable, I agree with the state of the world I live in. It will be a tough fight, but I would be a poor goblin if I backed away from such a battle. What would you have me do? You can't have the goblin nation as an ally. That wouldn't go down very well with the wizards."

Sandra spoke next "I propose a mutual sharing of information and an introduction to some contacts in the Wizarding World. I would need to know the laws of the land and how it all works, so I would preferably need to hire a wizard lawyer who knows how to work the system. We are willing to pay a fee for the initial contacts and any future contacts we feel are needed. For the fee of information, we could do, at first, pay each other depending on the severity and importance of the information, after that, once trust is earned, we drop that and have a Lawson/goblin division working together for our aligned goals."

Roglud grinned and nodded at that "that sounds reasonable, I will have the information you require sent as soon as possible, it will take no more than 2 days. Now, lets get to the specifics." Roglud's eyes shined when he was bartering with Sandra. Mat and his dad left the room 5 minutes into the conversation completely unnoticed. 2 hours later they had agreed terms and conditions and the goblin left happy.

Things were rolling into place quite nicely. Mat's mum did as she said she would. She went on a more aggressive spending spree buying in investments and made plans for four new branches of the company which dealt in technology, telecommunications, media and the scientific fields. She got in contact with some of the most prestigious universities in Britain such as Oxford and Durham, St Andrews and Kings College. She invested into research and created a new financial division of the company, attempting to get some of the freshest minds from all over the country straight out of university to work for them. In about four months, she had spent nearly half a billion on expanding the Lawson Enterprises and it had grown exponentially.

Mike expanded the building side as well. He hired over 40 more staff and started investing in multiple properties at the same time, having teams of lads going out and renovating old builds to sell on for profit. He also had hired out of the construction industry to create new builds. This started off small because he had to make a name for himself before he could land large contracts. In the meantime, he placed the three people the family had spoken about during the planning stage. Mat's uncle Bob, and Mikes mate Steve were hired together to screen the right people. They were unsure about this at first, but with a high wage and promises that they would get told the whole story once they had sorted out a team.

Overall these expansions cost the company over £650 million. That was a lot of money. Mat chose to trust his parents to know what they were doing, so he studied in the meantime. It took about 2 months to complete the collection of the books. It doesn't sound long but considering the length of the books and the size of the writing, it wasn't as daunting as he first thought. It took him about a week of meditation to fully organise his thoughts and the sheer amount of information in his brain.

When he had finished organising his mind. He started going over the practical aspect of ancient runes. He discovered that they were indeed Norse runes from archaeology, so that was good. He also found out that the hieroglyphics used in ancient runes were cursive hieroglyphics, the same kind that was used in the Book of the Dead. He found out that runes used in the Wizarding World was a hieroglyph surrounded by Norse runes, and that the hieroglyph was the initial spell while the Norse strengthened and activated the rune cluster. They were relatively simple to understand for Mat. Luckily the 400 books that he had read on the topic of runes gave him a good understanding of cursive text, so he didn't really need to invest in muggle archaeological papers and books. He wanted too anyway though.

So, with a basic understanding of runes out of the way, he focussed on occlumency. He had devoured the contents of the 200 or so books on the subject. He made himself comfortable in the garden area and settled down for the long process of fortifying his mind. Firstly, he created an access point for everyone who entered this place, including himself. It was just outside the village area, looking directly at the castle. Secondly, he created layers and layers of protection in his mind and added more creatures into it for defence. These creatures were passive if the intruder had no hostile intentions, but if they tried to go into a restricted area, they would swarm and attack them. He added myrddraal from the Wheel of Time series and orcs from Lord of the Rings here. They were the guards of The Village, Temple and University. The swarms of other creatures were in the forests surrounding the place. Ready to pounce if needed. You can see them lumbering in the distance, huge titanic creatures, their heads poking out from the forest. Thirdly he made the castle into a labyrinthine fortress and made sure to only place knowledge that he knew from this world and nothing to do with his knowledge from his old life. All that was hidden in an unassuming mine in the forest. Lastly were the added defences in the mine. He created it into a horrorscape. If anyone made their way in here, they would think it would be where Mat hid all his deepest darkest fantasises and desires. Incorporeal creatures and horrors existed here, body parts and torture chambers were everywhere, he created it from a mix of some things he had seen in the Diablo games and the Druchii from Warhammer. At the end of this place was a pure white room, with a TV in the middle where he could access his old memories. This was linked to other parts of the Mind Palace such as the University where he had the information of the Wizarding World.

He found it easier to access information and the structures within his Mind Palace became more solid. The buildings appeared to be lived in and yet there was no one there. There were small things like food half eaten and washing on the washing lines. It was eerie to Mat. It felt that everyone had just got up and left. He was taking a stroll around the castle when he noticed that the tower now had a door on it. It was unimpressive, just a wooden door. Mat smiled and entered. It was a complete library of all the books he had read from Flourish and Blotts. There were rooms which had specialities, like transfiguration and potions coming from a central node. In this place there was a cosy fireplace and a red seat with a coffee table next to it. Mat explored for a while and sat down in the chair in comfort. He wand appeared next to him on his lap as he did.

After researching and going over the knowledge he acquired about arithmancy, it turned out that it was advanced mathematics, but used to make spells. He couldn't apply it to anything yet because he was still comprehending the theory behind magic. Yes, he could read up on the subject, but he couldn't feel what it was, he couldn't see the effects. He studied it regardless though. He noticed while reading up on the subject however that he could apply the subject to runes to either enhance their performance or tear the runes down.

Mat always had his wand on him. It was like it was a part of him now. He knew he couldn't use it to cast spells until Hogwarts. But he always had it with him when he did. He had a wand holster and the wood was always next to his skin. When Mat cast his shield or flashbangs the wood appeared to sing. Like it approved that Mat was using his magic.

The rest of the summer went by rather uneventfully and they decided to take the mercenary operation quite slowly and focus on making the business an empire. If they were found out too early, it could be disastrous. Uncle Bob and Steve were informed on a very loose basis what they were preparing for and agree to take it slow in what they were doing. They go into the military underworld and start to get information about weapons and technology. They hire a small team of people they can trust and travel the world making contacts. Mat's Uncles mate, Gary, was still in the marines and was not available to join them. Unfortunately for them, at the beginning of August, Mi6 were tipped off that they are enquiring about military grade weapons and technology. They choose to nothing for now but keep tabs on them just in case they make a move.

Toward the end of August, Mat was looked forward to starting his official training at Hogwarts. He made sure that he had all the information and the small number of spells he could perform wandlessly were available at all times. He decided until he got to Hogwarts to fully attempt new wandless magic due to not knowing the feeling behind each cast. He also had to visually see the spells coming out of a wand with the Sine Sight. He went to sleep eager for the 1st September.

VVVVVV

Sorry about the late post, things have been pretty mad here. Comments and stuff are appreciated, feel free to inbox me.

Also, the chapters will be coming randomly and in bursts. I have a really hectic schedule and can only do this when I have a full day free, which has been basically non-existent recently. Peace!


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: all the Harry Potter stuff belongs to J.K Rowling. I have also taken a few bits directly out of the Philosophers Stone book. Details at the end.

VVVVVV

It was finally September 1st. Regardless of the war to come, Mat was excited. He had a feeling of dread in his stomach but now he could finally do something, other than studying. He had to be on Platform 9 ¾ for 11am. Therefore, he had to be awake at stupid o'clock to go to the station to catch the train from Yorkshire down to London to get the train back up to Scotland. Typical wizarding stupidity. The annoying thing is that there was a train which went straight through where he lived that went straight up to Edinburgh, but nope. Anyway, he got up earlier than he should have. It was pitch black outside at 3am. They had to get the 6am train to London, one good thing was that they went straight into King's Cross. It was about a 4-hour trip.

Mat had packed all his stuff the day before. It didn't take him that long. He packed all the essentials such as everything on the list for Hogwarts, his clothes and the brand-new shiny telescope he had ordered. He had created a small study space in his trunk and added some furniture and had the goblins create a magic nulling area in there, he would try and get his laptop working while in Hogwarts. His mum was fussing for ages to make sure he had packed everything, she demanded he took a first aid kit… just in case. He didn't really bother with a pet and would use the Hogwarts owls. Everything was in order and he was basically sat at the door like a dog waiting for a walk by the time his parents came downstairs. They both gave him a smile as they came down, one after the other. All three of them ate some food then left.

The trip from home to the train station was uneventful, they packed up in the car park and walked to the station. They had about 10 minutes to kill so they went for a cup of tea. Finally the train arrived, they climbed onboard, into the first class section… obviously. They sat down on the table they had pre-booked, Mat placed his suitcase trunk on the luggage rack above their heads, it seemed to fit perfectly. His parents did the same with their overnight bags. They settled in for the long ride again. Mat brought up the idea of having a floo installed in the house. Two sets of sleepy eyes agreed. 6 o'clock in the morning was extremely unreasonable. They had a chinwag, food and a bit of a nap on the way down, all things considered, it was a rather nice trip. Apart from the delay due to poor weather in the Midlands. Mat pondered how long the train ride would be to Hogwarts. It was pitch black from the description of the boat ride in the books and films. So considering that sunset was at like 8 at night, that meant at least a 9 hour train ride. He got a bit depressed about the amount of travel he had to do in one day. Luckily for his parents, they could chill out for the rest of the day in London and go to the hotel they had booked whenever they wanted. Lucky sods.

They got off the train, it was 10:41. They didn't have much time to get onto Platform 9 ¾. They found the area but couldn't see which pillar to run into to get there. That's where he saw a gaggle of redheads and a heard a screeching woman approaching. He recognised them immediately, the Weasleys. He pointed to them and his parents recognised them as wizards due to their strange attire. They decided to approach and ask them what to do. As if no one told them how to actually get onto the platform? He was curious as to how many first year muggleborns had missed the train.

He approached the Weasleys and shouted, "excuse me?" Walking up to them has he did. All heads turned around to look at him, most of the tribe was there, with Bill and Charles absent.

Molly was the first to answer, she smiled a motherly smile, she was wearing beige, just beige, had red bushy hair and a kind face, "yes dear, how my I help you?"

Mat smiled back, "are you going to Platform 9 3/4 by any chance?" He realised how much like Harry he sounded, but with a Yorkshire accent, he refused to change that.

Molly nodded "yes we are, do you need help finding it?"

He replied, "yeah, no one told us how to actually get there"

She huffed, "typical, it wouldn't be the first time. See that pillar over there? You just walk straight through it." She pointed at a pillar that looked near enough exactly like the rest.

"How can you tell?" Mat asked, genuinely intrigued.

Molly placed her hand on his shoulder and lent down, pointing "See that sign in the middle, about half way up?" Mat nodded "Look at it properly" as soon as he did, he noticed it had a shimmer. He mouthed a silent 'o' in realising it's the same shimmer that the Leaky Cauldron had, but it didn't reveal anything. She turned to Percy, "Be a dear and show this young man what to do."

"Yes mum" he obediently said, lined up and ran towards the pillar. Mat couldn't help but tense up, expecting him to just bounce off, but he didn't and ran straight through. The twins grinned at him and followed Percy.

Mat looked at his parents, shrugged and copied what he saw Percy and the Twins do, and ran straight through. It felt as if he had a bowl of cold water thrown over him and was immediately dried off. He was hit with a cloud of steam which disoriented him a bit and then he saw it, just to his left, was the Hogwarts Express. Technologically speaking it was archaic, but it was a bloody majestic train. He kept walking, not very mindful of his surroundings as he stated. It appeared to be newly built, the black and red painting was fresh. He took note of the Hogwarts Express on the front of the train on an arched plaque in gold writing. He never really liked trains, he liked this one though.

He bumped into someone as he was not paying attention, turned out to be one of the twins, he couldn't tell which. He stumbled back and felt an arm on the top of his arm "watch it mate!" he said with a laugh.

"Sorry, was just looking at the train, not seen one so old before" Mat replied.

He shrugged, "its just a train, I've seen it for the past Merlin knows how long."

Another voice said next "He's Fred, I'm George, Nice to meet ya" he held his hand out to shake and Mat took it.

"I'm Mat, nice to meet you" Mat shook his hand. All three of them turned around when the rest came through, most of the Weasleys came first, then the Lawsons afterward. Ginny came holding her mother's hand, then Ron followed after, with Arthur behind Mats parents. Ginny was wearing a skirt and jumper with her hair tied back. Ron was wearing brown cords with a jumper and Arthur was wearing navy blue wizarding robes with a pointed cap. They all made introductions and they looked like they did from the movies but were different.

He could recognise the Weasleys anywhere because of what he had seen on screen but couldn't tell what was different about them. "I wonder if the actors who played them are real or not?" He never looked to see if the legend Alan Rickman actually existed. A question for another day Mat thought. The whistle blew indicating that the train was leaving in 10 minutes, the families bid their initial goodbyes, hugs were given and 5 minutes before the train was due to leave, Mat went to enter the train. He didn't even see the Twins get on. He saw Ron and Ginny looking wistfully at the train, obviously wanting to go with them. Arthur and Molly were waving at a window which the Twins were hanging out of, he couldn't see Percy. He gave another wave to his parents and climbed on board. He walked through the corridor for only about 30 seconds to find somewhere to sit when he found the Twins carriage. He opened the door and found Fred, George and a dark-skinned fellow with dreads looking at him. "Mind if I sit with you?" He enquired.

They looked at each other "only if you pass a test" the dark-skinned boy said with a mischievous grin.

"OK, what is it?" Mat said.

The twins said in unison "a test."

Mat grinned "Yes, but what kind of test?

All three grinned mischievously. The dark-skinned lad said "do a prank, and don't get caught. Come back once you've done it." The Twins laughed at that and agreed.

Mat laughed "Ha! OK, can I leave this here?" he held up the trunk. They nodded, and so he left to find some way of pranking someone. Mat wasn't a malicious individual, he didn't really like pranks either, but he felt if he could get in with the Twins and the other kid, who he assumed to be Lee Jordan, he could get a good head start in meeting new people. He saw a group of girls ahead of him. He tried to squeeze past them, they were crowding around a carriage, he couldn't tell who was inside.

"Excuse me" he said, no one noticed him, he tried louder "Excuse me! Can I get through?" two girls turned around with a look of scorn on their faces. He didn't recognise any of them, they must be in their final year.

"Go away firstie" one of them drawled. She was pretty, he hair in a pony tail and a headband and chestnut hair. She wore her uniform in a way that was probably the fashion in Hogwarts at the time, with one half of her shirt hanging out, the other tucked in. Her friend was similar. She was blonde but had her hair loose. Mat didn't take much notice of much else, as the blonde one pushed him away with her hand on his face.

Mat just smiled "fine" he said to them, they snickered behind his back as he walked away. Little did they know he cast a low powered flashbang in the middle of the group, and another one in the carriage. He took 4 more steps when they went off. All tried to hold in a laugh as he heard the screeches, screams and howls of both boys and girls. "My ears!" and "My eyes!" And "I can't see" were barely understandable through the cacophony of noise behind him. Some kids opened the doors to their carriages to see what the commotion was. Among them were the Twins and Lee, Mat walked past them with a blank look on his face into the carriage. They sat there looking at him and Mat winked. All four of them laughed.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, Mat!" either Fred or George said, they both slapped him on the back.

Mat laughed, "thanks lads, I didn't expect to find some good targets so soon though."

They agreed, "neither did we, we didn't expect you to go after some 7th years though. Very ballsy." Lee remarked.

"What did you do to them?" One of the Twins asked.

Mat tapped the side of his head, not telling them, sat down and leaned back into the seat. "Fair enough" the other one said.

The trip to Hogwarts was uneventful. He bought some food from the trolley lady. He decided to bribe them all with whatever they wanted. It went well. They tried to convince him that he had to fight a troll during the sorting ceremony. Mat gave them a blank look. They knew he wasn't gullible after that. People came and went, he saw Cho Chang as she walked past, he gave her a wave and she waved back. Mat had a little nap on the way there, turned out it was in fact a 9-hour ride.

They crossed the border into Scotland and the further up they went the scenery changed. Long green grassy hills turned into forested areas then when they got into the Highlands, it changed again to lochs, mountains and tall trees. The scenery was amazing. Mat had never been to the Highlands before. He had been to Norway though and the landscape was similar. Peering out of the window he was mesmerised by the beauty of the land. He looked forward from the train and saw a huge mountain come into view. He had seen mountains before, the Alps, but he didn't really see them from afar, they just sort of appeared when he approached them on a coach. They inched closer to the mountain and it grew in size the closer they got. Tall pine trees were replaced by rocky hills with grass that hung on for dear life. They looked to be cutting right through the mountain range, he could feel his ears pop with the change in altitude. The train lurched a bit and he noticed that they were travelling through and between two mountains, in a valley. It was serene.

He took all the sights in on the way to Hogwarts, if the scenery around the castle was as good as this, he would be quite happy there. He tried to access information about Hogwarts from the books he had read. Turns out that they just assumed everyone knew where the castle was. He never picked that up before. The Highlands was a big place, imagine trying to find something which was mostly wilderness? Mat just filed it away in the 'to ask later' part of his brain and chilled out on the train.

Eventually the sky started to darken, it was then when word came around to prepare for getting off at Hogsmeade Station. The people on the train seemed to get a second wind when they started moving around, excitement buzzed in the air. Mat was excited too. He couldn't wait to see the castle.

The Hogwarts Express on the wrong side of the hill which Hogwarts hid behind so he couldn't get a peek. The train slowed down, so it was nearly time for the journey to end. It didn't feel like they had travelled for 9 hours, he felt refreshed and ready to go. He was told to leave everything onboard, he followed the orders as everyone he was with did the same thing. It was surprisingly orderly. The stereotype for queues appeared to be the same for British wizards. He got onto the station, the Twins and Lee had disappeared.

Hogsmeade Station was in between two wooded hills. He couldn't see very far at all from where he was looking. As he turned around, though, he saw a massive lake which ended at some low mountains at the far end, there were probably trees everywhere too but he couldn't see them through the darkness. Hogwarts Express pointed toward it, there was a tight bend that was extremely close to the lake turning left. His view was restricted by the train so he couldn't see more. On his right side, there was a rather ominous looking gate which the older students were walked towards. Presumably to ride the 'horseless' carriages to the castle. It was then when the tallest man Mat had ever seen appeared to materialise from nowhere shouted "Firs' years, to me! Tha's it, hurry!" he forgot that no matter the occasion, everyone was too slow to react when the teachers wanted them to do something at this place. Most people had only just got off the train and they were being told to hurry up. Stupid.

Regardless, he followed the crowd of first years and got onto a boat. The boat he climbed in, from what he could see, was made of a dark wood which looked black. It had a lantern on the front that was on a hook on a stick. He got on with three other girls, they all seemed to know each other. They introduced themselves as Pomona Nott, Ariana Murray and Olympe Slinkhard. Mat noticed the Nott name but tried his best not to give it away. Pomona Nott was of fair skin, long black hair which was loose with a black headband in, she looked quite mousey in appearance and had hard, chestnut eyes. Ariana Murray was of a darker skin, jet black hair with freckles and had a wide face and friendly, dark eyes, as black as coal. Olympe Slinkhard had long golden hair in a loose pony tail, topaz green, serious eyes, porcelain skin and looked rather wolfish, yet snobby in appearance. He could tell that all three were purebloods. He introduced himself and he received three small nods in reply. And that was that. They didn't speak to him, and he didn't speak to them, he was fine with that.

Suddenly the boats lurched off, and a few girls squealed, and boys giggled nervously. He held onto the side and they all set off in the mini armada towards their destination. They turned a corner and that was when they saw it. Majestic in its beauty and dominant on the landscape. It had a beautiful backdrop of forest covered mountains and was reflected in the calm water of the lake. The castle itself appeared black in the night but sparkled like stars in the sky from the light in the large arching windows. There were hundreds of towers with battlements attached to them and tall spires reaching into the heavens. It was situated at the edge of a cliff, which must be where the great hall was, it was the largest single piece of architecture on the complex and had a massive tower with a spire, which was as tall as the tower, on top at the beginning of it. All in all. It looked awesome.

He looked around and saw some ripples and a tentacle come out of the water and slink back into the depths. "The Squid," Mat thought "I wonder if it's friendly like in the books". They made their way toward an arch cut into the cliff which acted as a small port for the little armada to dock in. As soon as they docked and started getting out of the boats, Hagrid perked up again "hurry now, we don't want you lot' to be late fer the feast now do we?"

Mat rolled his eyes, climbed out of the boat first, offered his hand to the girls, they declined, he shrugged and walked away. They made the trek up the stairs and waited to go into the great hall, there was a mixture of emotions, ranging from fear, to excitement, to impatience. They had a meeting with Nearly Headless Nick when he popped up from the floor. He made most people jump, including Mat. It was strange to see a ghost. They just seemed to be see through floaty people, nothing scary about them, and friendly enough to talk too.

She was felt rather than heard when Professor McGonagall appeared and shooed the ghosts away. She was standing next to the huge wooden doors of the great hall at the top of the stairs. All eyes turned to her and all talk quietened under her stern glare.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rulebreaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."

They were then ordered to form a line and follow her. They did as told, and the door opened. He took a deep breath and followed the rest inside. He had been to the Studio Tour in London and saw how they used camera tricks to make the small set seem massive. He was unprepared by the sheer size and majesty of it when he walked through the threshold. He couldn't tell how big it was. It had statues leaning out from pillars between the stained-glass windows which were holding braziers in their mouths with an ethereal fire burning inside. The statues were of snakes, griffons, badgers and eagles. The houses creatures. There was wooden panelling below them and pillars which look to be the platform for the statues to stand on. They were intricately carved and looked almost lifelike. The floor was of all colours of the rainbow made from pure marble, locked together in a herringbone style. On any bare piece of wall there were tapestries hung or faded magical paintings of things like pentagrams, the sun, moon, stars and mythical beasts. The ceiling ran high then ended, turning into the night sky, populated by floating candles and stars behind them. It was surreal.

He looked at the children there, there were not that many to say that it was the wizarding school of the entirety of Britain. About 300, tops. There appeared to be only 30 odd in his year alone. There were over 300 kids in his primary school in the muggle world. This didn't seem right. He finally looked at the main table. One person caught his eye. Dumbledore.

He radiated power, he could see it. He had a grandfatherly look about him and had grey robes with silver trimmings which seemed to glitter every time he moved. He long beard that fell below the table, so he couldn't see how long it was and was peering at the students over his halfmoon glasses with a small smile.

The second person to catch Mat's eye, was Professor Quirrell. And that was because he was looking for him. He seemed… normal. No strange twitches, heathy skin. Still those ridiculous purple robes, but no turban. "So this must be the Quirrell before Voldy got on the back of his head" Mat thought.

He took in the other teachers and they were straight copy and paste from the films. Yet, again, somehow different. Mat shrugged it off to his brain making connections to his past life and what he had seen before.

The first years were herded to stand at the front of the Hall and stopped in front of an old hat on a stool. The Sorting Hat. It was a ragged old thing, kind of a faded blue in colour and almost grey. A grin appeared in it and it began to sing. It sang, Mat hated it. So he ignored the son and looked around some more.

Eventually it stopped and Professor McGonagall called to them. "When I shout your name, sit on the stool and you will be sorted by the hat. Belby, Marcus." She called.

A boy came through the crown as it parted for him. He sat down with a worried expression and the hat was placed on his head. He closed his eyes and didn't move for nearly 10 seconds. Then suddenly "Hufflepuff!" The Hat announced.

Hufflepuff cheered and then Katie Bell was announced. She was quickly sorted into Gryffindor. A few names, such as Cho Chang, Eddie Carmichael and Marietta Edgecombe were shouted before Mat's turn.

"Lawson, Matthew" McGonagall announced. He took a deep breath and took a seat. The world went black.

"Hmmmmm, what do we have here? A traveller? From another universe? This is a new one, even for me. Now, where to put you?" the Hat said in his mind, its was a soft voice, a voice from an old wise man.

"Hello Mr Hat." Mat said, trying to break the ice a bit. He needed to be placed in the right house for his plans and to fight Voldemort.

"Hello, Boy! Fight Voldemort eh? That's a very Gryffindor thing to do, don't you think?" the Hat replied.

"So you can read my current thoughts as well?" Mat asked.

"Indeed, your secret is safe with me. You are a hard one to place. Its usually over by now. Hmmm, lets see, you have a thirst for knowledge, Ravenclaw would do well for you. You are cunning, planning the war from the shadows proves this, so you could do well in Syltherin. You are loyal to your family and people you care about, as well as to people you haven't met yet, so Hufflepuff would be a good choice. I haven't had someone as hard as you to place in years." The Hat hummed to itself.

"I don't think Slytherin is a good idea, you know, being muggleborn and that." Mat Said, trying to help it out a bit.

"That is true, but you could get contacts in that house which would help you with your ambitions. That being said, if they discovered that you were helping fellow muggleborns and half bloods your life would not be very pleasant."

Mat agreed "also I don't think Hufflepuff would be that good of a fit either, they value fair play and I don not pan on doing that, at all. Also, I need to make allies and a name for myself, being sorted in there would hinder my progress by just being associated with that house."

"Another good point there Mr Lawson, and I quite agree with you. Now we have two houses left. Tell me which one you think would be your best fit."

"Erm OK, well, Gryffindors are brave and chivalrous, and are mostly all light users. I consider myself brave, but don't run in headstrong and prefer to plan my strike. Keeping to a strict moral code would be hard because I will mostly be working in the grey area of magic, so I think Gryffindor is out." Mat reasoned with the Hat.

"And that leaves Ravenclaw." The Sorting Hat said. "You have a vast amount of knowledge, you are a fast learner and want to be a leader in the coming war. You have vast resources and still wish to learn and push the boundaries of magic and science. You are accepting, creative, and have a strong individuality which would help you become incorruptible. Therefore…"

The world came back into view and he heard the Hat coughed, he saw some relieved faces when he opened his eyed. How long was he out? He heard the Hat yell "Ravenclaw!"

VVVVVVV

The bits taken from the book are: The Welcome to Hogwarts speech.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: all the Harry Potter stuff belongs to J.K Rowling. I have also taken a few bits directly out of the Philosophers Stone book as well as the film. Details at the end.

VVVVVVV

Mat walked away from the Sorting Hat, towards the Ravenclaw table. He noticed that all the kids at the table were clapping and smiling at him also, he smiled back and nodded to them all then sat next to a grinning and clapping Cho Chang. He leaned to her and whispered, "how long was I talking to the Hat?"

"About 2 minutes, everyone was getting a bit worried, some of the older years say that it never takes that long." Mat felt his cheeks redden and turned to look at Dumbledore who was looking at Mat as if trying to figure out a puzzle.

"My plan to stay under the radar is going swimmingly" he mumbled to himself.

"What?" Cho asked.

"I don't really like attention" he replied, turning to Cho.

She shivered, "yeah I get what you mean, it felt really weird sat on that stool in front of all those people."

Mat agreed "it did, but this is the only time we have to do that, hopefully." He gave a reassuring nudge to her with his elbow and looked back to the teachers.

His attention was then brought to the next kid walking towards the stool. He didn't hear his name being called out. After nearly 20 seconds the Hat shouted "Ravenclaw!" Mat clapped with the rest of the school and the kid sat next to him.

He held his hand out to him "Mat" introducing himself.

"Rand" the kid said, he was a small boy with long, wavy, bright red hair that would put a Weasley to shame, kind of looked like a girl, he would probably grow out of that. He had bright green eyes with a few freckles on his face, fair skin, and a straight nose. He had an obvious, yet soft London accent, they shook hands and watched the rest of the ceremony.

The final one to be sorted into Ravenclaw was Craig McGinnis. He was of middling height, quite stocky for an 11-year-old and had skin which was slightly tanned that made him appear to prefer being outdoors. His hair was messily spiked, like Mat's, and had intense grey/blue eyes. He introduced himself with a Glaswegian accent which gave away where he was from. He sat next to Rand.

There were seven sorted into Ravenclaw this year; Mat, Rand, Craig, Cho Chang, Marietta Edgecombe, Milly Jackson and Eddie Carmichael. Marietta was seated across from Cho, had reddish-blonde, curly hair with dark eyebrows and dark blue soft eyes. She was slim of figure and pale skin with freckles on her forehead and cheeks. Mat couldn't place where she was from with her accent. Milly had extremely dark skin and hair to match, pouty lips, short curly hair, tomboyish in appearance with playful dark brown eyes. She has a charming smile and sat next to Marietta, she had a Brummy accent. Eddie was sat next to Cho, he was tall, slim, acne on his forehead and a long nose. His short brown hair was gelled forward with the front flicked up and had a look about him that made it seem that he had a joke that only he knew. All of the kids in Mat's year were dressed primly in their Hogwarts uniforms with the ties tied right up to their necks and didn't have an item of clothing out of place. This didn't last long as they started copying the older kids in their Houses.

The three girls who were in Mat's boat, Pomona, Ariana and Olympe, were all sorted into Slytherin, Olympe was the last to be sorted from the first years. The rest of Mat's yearmates were split equally between the other houses. After the sorting was finished, there was a couple of minutes to chat, which the school did with a vigour. The sound died down when the 'tink tink tink' of a metal spoon hitting glass echoed unnaturally around the hall.

All heads turned to Dumbledore who was standing and placed the goblet he was tapping down gently on the table. He gave them all a smile, his eyes appearing to look at everyone in the room at the same time "can I have your attention please?" he nodded to himself when all the noise all but vanished. "I have a few start of term notices I wish to announce. The first years please note that the Dark Forest is strictly forbidden to all students."

"Well," thought Mat, "that going to stop everyone from going there isn't it?"

"Also our caretaker" he pointed to him "Mr Filch has asked me to remind you that the list of banned items are on the board next to his office. I would like to welcome out new Defence Against the Dark Art's teacher, Professor Quirrell." He turned and gestured to the man who bowed gracefully in his chair. "All in all, I wish to welcome everyone, new and old, to Hogwarts!" He opened his arms wide with his hands toward the ceiling and then the food appeared, and the feast began.

There were gasps from all the students in the hall, and immediately people dug into the food served. It was a buffet style feast in which people grabbed what they wanted. It was a roast style dinner which including three types of meat, beef, chicken and pork. There were vegetables such as carrots, potatoes (mashed and roast), peas and broccoli and a plethora of other vegetables. Also in the mix was deserts, like chocolate cake, cheesecake and jelly, some people ate that instead of the real food. Luckily roast dinner was Mat's favourite food, hopefully they had more variety in future though, he didn't think he could live with roasts every day for next 7 years. The worst thing about the feast is that the only drink they had was pumpkin juice. "Pumpkin Juice? Who the fuck drinks pumpkin juice? I refuse to be here and drink pumpkin juice with every meal, its bloody vile!" Mat exclaimed, more to himself than to anyone in particular. There were a few sniggers here and there and some first years looking into their goblets, but nothing more got said.

The feast ended and all the older years left to go to their dorm rooms. Mat's year were told to wait at the entrance so the prefects could take them to Ravenclaw tower. A sixth year named Robert Hilliard came to greet them, he had a black mop of hair with a strong brow, deep-set eyes and narrow chin. Unlike his peers, he was dressed as immaculately as the first years, possibly due to him being a prefect. His voice was like scratching nails on a blackboard with the way he spoke. "OK first years to me hurry up now we don't have all day!" he screeched.

"I'm going to blow my top if every fucker keeps telling me to hurry up when we don't even have a bloody chance to even react" Mat swore under his breath, Cho snorted next to him and hid her mouth, trying to not laugh.

"Hurry! Hurry! Right, now that you are all finally here," he huffed like a peacock, full of self-importance, Mat hated him, "follow me and I will take you to the Tower." He turned and walked at a brisk pace making them all nearly jog to keep up. He started talking away from them, expecting them all to listen, only the people immediately next to him or behind him could hear properly. Mat was tensing to set off a flashbang next to his head, but sheer amount of willpower and discipline stopped him from doing so. He could vaguely hear that Robert was drawling about the greatness of Ravenclaw, what is expected of them, what they would and wouldn't abide by. The usual drivel. Mat was barely listening, he was looking around at the sights.

The castle was as beautiful within as without. The stonework was lined to perfection and were so flush it looked like someone had drawn the edges of the stones on with a pencil. The tapestries dotted around had no dust or any kind of fraying. The paintings moved and spoke to them. That was eerier than he expected. They bypassed the staircases and travelled to the base of a tower which they went up a spiral staircase to a large corridor 4 floors up. It surprisingly wasn't that much of a trip, at least he didn't feel like he had climbed four floors.

There was a magnificent door made from wood with eagle motifs carved on the face and a great bronze knocker, also in the shape of an eagle. There were two spiral columns on the side which arched up into Byzantine arch. As the group came closer, the eagle shifted and spread its wings, opened its mouth and said a riddle.

In a soothing female voice the eagle asked, "What is the leading cause for dry skin?"

All the students looked around, even the prefect, Mat barked a laugh. They all turned to him. "What's so funny?" Robert asked.

"It's a joke! I used to tell my friends it all the time."

He crossed his arms and looked down at him "tell us then" he said imperiously.

"It's a towel" Mat half sniggered.

Without saying a word, the eagle curled into itself again and the door opened. The prefect just huffed, his nose in the clouds and walked through the door. A couple of the students laughed, but most rolled their eyes. Mat thought it was hilarious. They walked into a sort of common room, more like a waiting room with long seats pushed against the walls. Robert turned to them.

"This is the antechamber to the tower. There are four more floors, with the top one being the common room. The tower is split in two, the boy's side is through the left side," he pointed to his right, all eyes turned to the left, "the girls to the right" all eyes followed his hand when he gestured to the door. "Your floor is the sixth, the closest to the bottom, the further up you go, the higher the year is. All the rooms have individual bedrooms with a small communal area for your dorm and an adjacent bathroom. If the girls will wait here, a head girl will be down soon to show you to your room. Boys follow me". With that he turned and walked through the door.

They followed him up some rather spacious spiral stairs and they came to plane looking door with a bronze handle which he opened and walked through. The stairs carried on upwards to the other dorms and the common room. Mat could just make out another door a bit further up around the curve of the stairs. As they entered Robert turned "right, these are your dorms, the bathroom is the big door to the right, and the doors to the left of me are your rooms. In Ravenclaw there are no curfews within the dorms, we trust that you will behave while here and study hard. Goodnight". With that he left.

Mat observed his surroundings. It was oval in shape, had white plaster walls, with a royal blue and bronze colour scheme and looked quite regal yet spartan at the same time. The main feature was a fireplace which had 2 plain pillars on each side and a plain mantle piece. Mat could feel the heat it radiated, there appeared to be no fuel for it, probably enchanted. There weren't any unneeded things adorning the walls or clutter around the room. There was a sofa with two chairs that had blue adorning and brass furnishing which could easily fit four people. Blue tapestries adorned the wall and there were two desks that were half circle shape which can have two people sat at the same time. The floor was black tile with thin strips of bronze at the edges. The curtains were again blue with bronze coloured tiebacks and hooks to keep them open. All in all, it was pleasant.

Mat announced that he was going to unpack his stuff. The luggage was next to each door on the floor to the right. Mat picked up the trunk and took it inside. His bedroom was a simple affair, had a four-poster bed probably made from oak, if the colour was anything to go by, two shelves and a wardrobe. It was about 3x2m and was spacious enough for him to rest comfortably. It had a window at the side of the bed which would have had a wonderful view of the quidditch pitch if it wasn't night time. It had the same colour scheme as the common room, white walls, blue material and bronze furnishing. Mat placed the trunk next to the wardrobe and unpacked his things. Half an hour later he had finished and went to the dorm common room. Rand, Craig and Eddie were chilling in front of the fireplace. Mat joined them.

"What do you think?" He asked as he sat in the spare chair.

They all gave responses like, "I like it," or "its comfy". They chatted for a few more hours and went to bed.

VVVVVVV

Mat woke up from his sleep at about 5am. It was pitch black outside and so Mat decided to scout out the common room. But first he did his usual business and got ready for the day. He planned on doing his exercise at 6 in the morning every day by running around the lake a couple of times, three if he was feeling particularly energetic. He got dressed in his uniform, trousers, shirt, jumper, tie and robe and left.

He climbed the stairs and as he turned the final turn and the common room opened up to him. It was amazing. It had the same colour scheme as his dorm room but had a more warm and friendly atmosphere. The white plaster walls looked to have gold inlay to make it seem like marble. The furniture was blue and bronze with wooden areas showing on the arms and legs. It had a rich blue carpet and a grand fireplace on one side. This had spiral columns and a mantelpiece with a flower motif made from marble. Above that was a painting of Rowena Ravenclaw, it wasn't like the others and didn't move. The marble patterned walls ended about 3 metres up and was separated by some white stone, from then on, the ceiling was midnight blue with stars and the moon which appeared to move on their own accord. In the windows were study seas which would have been able to sit 6 people, 2 on each wall and 2 at the window. The windows were tall enough to let a large amount of light through, the people sitting at the desks wouldn't block any light what so ever. The windows themselves had lead diamond window panes that ended in an arch. The pillars which separated the little study zones at the windows each had a book shelf stacked with books. In the centre of the room, floating in the air, was a bronze, moving model of the solar system with the sun giving a smooth natural daylight to the entire room. There were other little tid bits like small coffee tables, lecterns, small piles of books lent against the wall, globes and other items that Mat didn't know the meaning of. Overall, it looked a very comfortable study space which Mat thought he would be spending a lot of time in.

Mats eyes were drawn to the only person in the room, a girl with very pale, porcelain skin, platinum blonde hair as well with a narrow chin and straight nose. Her eyes were a light grey, almost white, which matched her appearance and had an intensity to them. Despite her description she looked extremely healthy, had a petite yet full figure, even stretched out on the couch as she was. Her eyes locked on Mat's as he came through, she nodded to him in greeting and he responded in kind.

Mat walked around the bookshelves to find some material he wasn't familiar with. He found one on ancient runes and started reading it a fair distance away from her in an empty seat. "You a first year? I've not seen you before." She had a soft voice with an accent Mat couldn't quite place.

"Yeah I am, first official day here" he replied looking over his book at her, she had lowered it page up on her lap.

"Aren't you a bit young to be studying runes?" She glanced to the book Mat had and back up to Mat.

"I know, I found them while raiding the book shop on Diagon Alley, they seem to call to me, you know?" Mat blushed a bit and shrugged nonchalantly.

"You understand them?" She asked tilting her head, it was cute.

"Yeah, it's easy, why?" he asked, hoping she wouldn't pry too much.

"That's rare," Mat shrugged again, not really knowing how else to respond."How long have you been doing that?"

"Dunno, been about reading them for about 4 months now I think." He watched her place the book down gently on the table next to the sofa she was laid on and get up to walk over to him. She walked like a cat. Mat closed the book as she came closer, she had a parchment and quill in her hand.

She held her hand out to him "Tiana" she stated.

"Mat, nice to meet you" he replied, shaking her hand.

"You too" she sat next to Mat and drew a rune on the paper "What's that?" She asked.

It was shaped like a triangle but with one line missing "either fire or knowledge" Mat answered.

She nodded at that, "what happens if you pair with this?" She drew what looked to be a basket with rocks on the top which Mat recognised as a kiln.

"It will heat the object up, but keep heating it until it shatters or explodes, it needs a stabilising rune like this" he drew the rune for protection which was shaped like the letter Y with a line in the top middle. "The protection rune will stop it from exploding or whatever, but you also need to set a number for it to heat too. Adding a harmony rune could increase its longevity as well." Tiana smiled at first then the smile turned into a beam when he continued and finished.

"We need to go and see Professor Babbling. Do you want to go in an hour? I know she'll be awake that early." Mat could only nod, "mind if we do some more tests to see how good you are?" Mat agreed and they spent the next 10 minutes or so going over different rune clusters. She gave him a beaming smile, "you're a prodigy, I found it really hard to understand these and get my mind around them, it takes a good few minutes to work out what each cluster does, I think you're a prodigy." She stated.

Mat smiled up at her and blushed, thanking her, he was never very good with praise. He also wanted to see Professor Babbling to get a better understanding of runes, but he didn't expect to be seeing her on the first day though. He was reading the book while they waited, and it was while reading this that the author spoke about how different styles of runes and hieroglyphs can be used for similar purposes. The most popular ones are in the Norse rune and Cursive hieroglyphs and these have stayed popular to this day. The more advanced and complicated rune clusters combine older scripts and runic style languages together to create something powerful and unique. It also turns out by adding runes and languages together, they create more powerful clusters. For example, using Norse runes, Cursive hieroglyphs and Roman numerals are more powerful and stable than two runes etched onto an item and activated. This was a revelation to Mat, he now had extra stuff to research over the summer and new languages to learn.

The hour must have gone rather fast because the next time Mat looked up there were people in the room that he was not aware of. Tiana, he noticed, was talking to some friends who just walked in. She gestured over to him and Mat gave them an awkward smile when they turned to look at him. Mat placed the book back in its home and waited for Tiana, she came and off they went.

The two of them walked down the halls making small talk, Tiana leading the way. She stopped in front of a door. It looked like any normal door, but on a plaque next to it, it had the name Professor Babbling. She gave it a knock. A moment later it was opened by who Mat assumed was Babbling. She had long black hair that was loose, going past her shoulders, aquamarine, friendly eyes, slightly pasty, yet smooth skin and a round face. She had a Roman nose, a small underbite, was a short woman and wearing plain, non-descript black robes with purple inlay. "Yes, what is it?" she asked, eyeing the two students.

"Miss, I got talking to this first year this morning and I think you need to speak to him about ancient runes." Tiana said.

"Oh really? What about?" She asked, narrowing her eyes, curious.

"Its nothing bad miss, I just saw him reading up on it in the common room and he told me that he understood them when he found some books in Diagon Alley. I quizzed him and he could tell me what each one did within seconds, he's really good!" Tiana exclaimed.

She raised her eyes at Mat then she gave her nose a little rub, "well, come in then, let's see what you can do" she held the door open for them both to come in.

Mat saw that the room had stacks of papers and books everywhere, the only clear space was the floor around the desk, the three chairs in the room and the floor leading to two other doors on either side, presumably to her living quarters and a storage room. The books and papers on the shelves around the room were stacked in such a way that it seemed like a slight breeze would knock them off, but they stayed firm. The chairs and desk were a simple affair, the stereotypical dark wooden teacher's office equipment. There was a large window being the main chair which gave the room plenty of light, and a cast iron chandelier on the ceiling. She had a quill, a paper holder and a writing mat on the desk, she closed the door, walked around them both and sat down.

She did some other tests similar to what Tiana had. He answered them as best he could, then she asked him to draw a heating cluster and a protection rune. He did so, with the heating rune he drew what he explained to Tiana an hour ago. Then he drew the protection rune. They were fairly basic and he found it easy to do. Two hours they spent in there with Mat drawing runes and being quizzed about what pictures of what runes did what. They then went for breakfast with a beaming Professor, walking off to speak to Dumbledore and other teachers about Mat's skills.

The breakfast was a non-eventful affair, he ate with Tiana and her friends. He discovered that she and her family were from Russia, they moved here when she was young. Tiana's friends, Saskia and Jennifer were both rather pretty. In fact, he hasn't seen an unattractive witch or wizard since he got here.

Jennifer had long black locks of hair and a straight face with an equally straight nose and was friendly enough to speak too, but she didn't say too much, she was a pureblood so that was probably why. She told him to call her Jen, which he did. Saskia was a halfblood, also had black hair but with a hint of brown in a pony tail and had a tanned complexion. They made small talk while eating.

It was a typical full English, Mat just had toast. Toward the end, at about ten to nine, Professor Flitwick came to hand out the timetables for the year. He gave them out to people as he made his way down the table. He approached Mat, Tiana, Saskia and Jennifer gave the girls their timetables and dismissed them and off they went, Tiana saying goodbye to Mat.

"Professor Babbling told me that you might be the next prodigy in runes! Well done, you've not even started lessons yet and your already making waves!" He said excitedly, bouncing on his feet, gesturing wildly with his arms. He was everything Mat expected him to look like, with a long bushy beard that covered most of his face, a bulbous but not too big nose and a smile that you couldn't help but smile back at. He was wearing green robes which reached the floor so you couldn't see his feet and had a pointed wizard's hat that was bent at the tip, Mat thought it was done on purpose. "Here is your timetable, you have charms with me at 9:15, there's a map on the back." He gave the paper to Mat. "Don't be late!" and with that he tootled off and gave the timetables to the rest of the students. Mat didn't even have chance to thank him as he left.

Mat turned the paper in his hand over to look at his timetable they were each 1 hour 30 minute classes which he was fine with. He had charms in the morning and transfiguration immediately afterward. After dinner he had double herbology. This was the same for Wednesday but swapped around. Tuesday was defence against the dark arts with history of magic afterward, then double potions in the afternoon. On Thursday they had double potions again in the morning and flying in the afternoon with astrology at midnight. They had Friday morning off which was good but history of magic and defence against the dark arts in the afternoon.

He made his way to his dorm mates. "Where were you this morning Mat?" Rand asked.

"I had to go and see Professor Babbling." He replied.

"What for?" Enquired Craig.

Mat tried to trivialise it by giving a half smile "turns out I might be a runes prodigy."

"What? How? You've only been here a day!" Rand blurted out, his whites showing in his eyes.

"Ha!" Boomed Mat, "that's what I said! Come on, let's get to class."

The four of them made their way to the first charms class of the term, they were all excited. They entered the classroom, it was much like what is in the movies, with wooden pew-desks arranged on either side of the classroom and Professor Flitwick stood waiting for them on a plinth. Mat sat down on the wooden seat, it was extremely uncomfortable. There were books in shelves behind the professor which framed a massive window and was the only source of natural light. There were iron chandeliers, four all together in the room and a plain, stone fireplace which radiated heat. Mat couldn't help but smile as he saw the huge white feathers arranged on the tables. He took a seat in between Rand and Craig, with Eddie next to Craig. They were seated on the back pew, there were a couple of the other kids, and by the colour of their ties, they were Gryffindors. The Ravenclaw girls came in and sat in front of Mat and the boys. The rest of the Gryffindors trickled in after this and then the lesson started.

The professor gave them an introduction lecture, telling them of the history behind charms and what they can do. He completed his speech and then immediately got the class to do some magic. It was the Levitation Charm they were practicing. "Now, copy what I do, swish and flick and say the words, 'Wingardium Leviosa', try it now please." He tapped his wand in his hand while watching his class. Mat got his almost white, pear wood wand out and pointed it at the feather. He channelled his magic like he would do when casting his wandless magic and cast it.

"Wingardium Leviosa" he said with a purpose, giving the wand a swish and a flick like he saw the professor do. Immediately the feather flew in the air, Mat controlled it with his wand.

"Well done Matthew! Well done indeed, 10 points to Ravenclaw!" Professor Flitwick clapped his hands in jubilation as he cast the spell on the first turn.

Mat gave it another few goes and then helped everyone else in the room, including the Gryffindor's. The lesson flew by after that and everyone had mastered the charm.

Transfiguration was fun. The classroom was similar to the charms room but had individual school desks instead of pews. They were with Slytherin this time. Professor McGonagall was stood in front of her desk eyeing her pupils as they came in. She gave another beginning of year speech, describing the seven schools of transfiguration; Transformation, Human Transfiguration, Untransfiguration, Trans-Species Transformation, Switching, Vanishment and Conjuration. She gave an example of all of the sub classes, with Human Transfiguration she turned into a cat and back. Then she said they would start off with the easiest branch of transfiguration, Transformation.

Their first task was to transform a match into a needle. Professor McGonagall told everyone to visualise a needle with their mind and tap the matchstick with it, focussing magic through the wand. Before Mat did anything, he spent a minute or two getting the image of a match in his mind, he focused his magic and then pushed it down the wand while tapping the matchstick at the same time, he saw a shimmer of magic travel down the wand into the matchstick. The transformation was visible but not slow as he saw it change into a perfect needle. He smiled to himself.

"An excellent first try Mr Lawson, 10 points to Ravenclaw." Professor McGonagall told Mat in her stern voice. He thanked her and repeated the process a number of times before offering his help to the other kids, the Ravenclaws all agreed, the Slytherins shrugged him off. He had made some enemies that day apparently.

They all left after the class, Mat felt happy about himself and all of Ravenclaw had managed to transfigure the match into a needle, only half the Slytherins were able to do that. As he walked through the door and heading towards the main hall, someone pushed him to the floor.

Mat spun to land on his back so he could see who did it. There was a boy who he recognised from the transfiguration lesson stood there with a scowl on his face. "Who are you, Mudblood, to ask someone like me if I needed help?" he basically shouted, pointing his wand at Mat. A few of the boy's goons were eyeing Rand, Craig and Eddie with smiles on their faces, all had their wands out too.

"Fucking purebloods" Mat thought. He analysed the situation, he had no access to his wand, the boy was about the same height to him, but was weedy. He had slick brown hair pulled back, and had hazel eyes that were burning into Mat with disgust. He inched closer to Mat, his right knee got close enough to Mats right foot. The boy was pointing his wand at Mat with his right hand and was completely off balance. So, Mat acted.

As quick as a snake, Mat hooked his foot around the back of the boy's knee and pulled, he twisted on the floor, shot up and grabbed the startled, unbalanced boy's arm then pulled it to him, turning to his right, twisting the boy's wrist as he did, forcing him to drop his wand and further unbalancing him. He turned again to the left and elbowed the boy in the nose. He screamed like a cat in the night, defending its territory. His head snapped back in a fountain of blood. Mat then hooked his leg around the back of the boy's legs and pushed him onto the floor. Not giving him a chance to recover, he straddled him, pointing his wand in the boy's face, close to his eye. His left hand was around his throat, he lent down and whispered in his ear, "don't you fucking touch me again you little inbred cunt!" He lent back "Understand?!" He growled at him.

The boy nodded in pure fear, eyes watering and was turning pale, it contrasted with the blood coming out of his nose, which was quite obviously broken. "I didn't hear you" Mat growled again, leaning closer.

"Yes, Yes! I understand" he said in pained gasps.

"Good" Mat stated, he got up and walked away, leaving a shocked crowd behind. He was in a foul mood now. He proper couldn't be arsed with fighting on the first day of school, it started so well.

He stormed into the great hall for some food, he didn't feel like eating due to the adrenaline, but he knew he'd regret it later if he went without. He managed to get a few mouthfuls before feeling too full to carry on. Cho Chang came and sat next to Mat at the table "wow Mat, are you ok?" She asked

"Yeah I'm fine thanks." He replied sullenly.

"You really gave him a beating; do you know who that was?" Marietta asked who suddenly appeared at his other side.

"No, why? Should I? The little shit deserved what he got"

"That was Adrian Carrow!" Cho exclaimed, staring at Mat, eyes wide.

"Oh" was all that Mat said, looking at the chicken in front of him. This was when Snape in all his wisdom grabbed Mat by his collar, lifting him up from his seat. Mat swung his arm out and hit Snape's arm making him let go. Mat jumped up out of his seat and faced the teacher who was scowling at him like he had just scraped him from the bottom of his shoe. "The fuck you think you're doing?" Mat all but shouted. Making the whole hall quieten. Mat analysed him, making sure he wasn't going to be attacked again. He saw the now identified Adrien Carrow smiling at Mat behind Snape.

"Who do you think you are to attack one of my students?" He drawled out in his annoying tone. His hair was greasy, his skin pale, had dark eyes and gaunt features. His clothing was equally gaunt with faded black robes and what appeared to be potions stains down the front.

"He attacked me first, I just defended myself" Mat shot back, his fists clenching in barely controlled anger.

"I should have you expelled for striking another student, boy." He drawled again.

Mat flinched in shock "are you serious? Did he tell you what it was all about? How he pulled his wand on me while I was on the floor? Or is he a liar as well as a little pussy who was nearly crying when I took him down?" Mat's voice was raising into a full-on shout, his anger getting to boiling point.

Little did Mat know that the room started shaking, the cutlery, plates and goblets vibrating on the tables and windows rattling. Professor Vector, the only other teacher in the room came running over to attempt to diffuse the situation. She stood between teacher and student holding her arms out, palms flat, separating them both.

"Calm down, the both of you!" She all but shouted at them. "Severus, you should be ashamed of yourself! Grabbing onto a boy like that after he's just had a fight! Leave now before I lose my patience!" She turned to Mat, basically dismissing Snape, not making sure that he had actually left. "Breathe, boy, breathe. That's it look into my eyes" she placed her hands on Mat's shoulders, got onto his level, which was not that far down for her. "Breathe in and out, with me now." She instructed.

In Mat's tunnel vision all he could really see was her big brown eyes. He followed her instructions and the room came back into focus. He blinked a few times, shaking his head. He noticed all of the school who were in the great hall were staring at him, some nervously, some with grinning, some with shock. Others, like some of the Slytherins, were leering at him in contempt.

His attention was taken away when the Professor turned his face around with her hand, so he was looking at her, "come with me, let's talk about it ok?" Mat nodded numbly and they both left to go to her office.

He followed her into her office. He didn't take in many of the details, he was staring at the floor. She guided him to a chair. He had never felt so much like an 11-year-old till then. She sat on the edge of her desk "now, what's your name?"

"Mat" he said simply.

"OK Mat, can you tell me what happened?" she asked, with concern in her eyes.

Mat looked up and took her in for the first time. She was about middle aged, had an oval face, rosy, light skin, big brown, friendly eyes, jet black hair tied into a bun and pouty, red lips. She had simple red robes with a little decoration at the front. He sighed and then decided to tell her, now he'd calmed down. He also told her of the witnesses and what he did in class. Her response was to nod in contemplation, then she cast a non-verbal Patronus that whisked off in search for its target.

"I've just sent for Professor Flitwick, he'll know what to do. Everything is fine, I'll make sure that you won't get in trouble."

Mat beamed up at her "thank you, I can't tell how much that means to me."

"Don't worry about it, you do want a cuppa while we wait?" she asked.

"Definitely" he replied.

It was about 10 minutes later when Flitwick arrived. He had a serious expression. "I just spoke with Professor Snape and he told me that you'd attacked a boy, completely unprovoked" he stated staring directly at Mat "Then a few of your classmates popped up from nowhere and defended you. It seemed that Professor Snape didn't know the full story himself, and Septima's Patronus told me to come up here to speak with you." He chirped up after that and placed a hand on Mat's arm. "That boy will have detentions for a month for lying to a teacher and starting a fight. So! All in all, everything's worked out fine now hasn't it?" He said with a huge smile.

"Yeah not really," Mat stated, "I have Snape for 2 periods in 30 minutes." Mat said soulfully.

Flitwick's face fell, "well, that's enough to put a downer on anyone's day" he said mournfully.

Mat laughed and together, they left. Mat seeking his classmates and the teachers to do their teacherly duties.

Mat eventually found everyone in his year in Ravenclaw and told them about what happened. They all made their way to potions, who they shard with Hufflepuff. The classroom was empty when they arrived, so they took their places. Mat was sat in the middle right of the classroom, next to Cho, who seemed to stick like glue to him after the fight. He took in the scenes of this odd classroom while they were waiting.

It was a dull, soul sucking room and it smelt funny. There was barely any natural light, and what little there was, was from some portholes at the front. Everything else was lit with the classical iron chandeliers with some candles in holders in each corner. There were jars of things, like foetuses, eggs, animal parts and other stuff that Mat didn't recognise all floating in some sort of fluid. The walls and ceiling were black and looked to have never been scrubbed clean. There was a fire in the room as well, it seemed more like an open oven than a fireplace, it emitted no heat whatsoever. He took his books out of his bag and placed them on the table, as soon as he did that the door banged open making everyone jump.

"There will be no foolish wand waving or silly incantations in this class" he announced as he swooped through the room, robes billowing behind him like a wraith. He turned to look at the class when he reached the front and lent on a lectern. "As such I don't expect any of you to appreciate the subtle science that is potions making." He took a breath in, closed his robes around himself like Dracula and continued his speech "I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory and even put a stopper in death."

He took a deep breath and looked at each of the students of the class in the eye. They landed on Mat and he felt a blinding headache, Mat stared into his eyes and realised that Snape was trying to get into his mind, so he withdrew into it. His world went dark.

VVVVVVV

Thanks for reading!

The potions speech was taken from the film. Dumbledore's speech at the beginning was partially from the books and film


	11. Chapter 11

Mat felt like he was sinking in muddy water. His world was black and he couldn't feel anything, but he felt that his arms and legs were flailing. He became aware of a yellow-purple light which illuminated his world and he could now see his body. He wasn't dressed in his school uniform, he was in plain white t-shirt and joggers with white pumps. He felt like he was slowing down, like the muddy water was thickening, it was then when he also noticed shapes and a landscape appeared below him. He floated in mid air, then realised where he was. He was in his mindscape.

He was observing it in a way that he had never seen before. Around him he could see the landscape of the village and castle area. He looked up and saw that the entire area, including the forested outskirts, was covered by a dome. He could see shadows and shapes through the dome and they freaked him out a bit, he didn't know why, he felt like he was being watched. His mind then triggered a memory in which he was in potions class in Hogwarts and then he remembered that Snape was the last thing he saw before falling. He concentrated and tried to locate anything that didn't belong. It didn't take long for him to feel Snape's presence in the village.

He saw a black spec below him running around frantically. It seemed to be looking in houses, looking for something. Mat studied the spec and the world zoomed in around him and he could see the spec was Snape. His face didn't seem worried but his body language said otherwise. Mat decided to have some fun with his intruder and summoned some Myrddraal and Gentlemen to watch him and put him to freak him out.

Myrddraal were Shadowspawn from the Wheel of Time, they were eyeless beings they have a deadly grace to their walk and wear long black robes with black armour underneath which shines wetly in light. Complete with armoured boots and gloves they looked menacing. Their sickly pale skin and bald head was crisscrossed with angry red scars which never seem to heal, this gave them a terrifying appearance. They carried two black swords, one in each hand, wickedly barbed and deadly in appearance.

The Gentlemen are demons from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. They float in the air and their actions are jolty like they are being controlled by strings from an unseen puppeteer. They have sharp black suits and ties on a humanoid body. Their jet-black eyes and blue/white skin make them utterly unnatural, the constant grin they wear emphasises their unnaturalness.

He ordered them so they would disappear when he got too close and laugh and smile if Snape tried to attack them. At first Mat summoned some mist to cloak the area, he made the Myrddraal and Gentlemen walk slowly in the mist, so they appeared to be shadows to Snape. Snape saw the shadows out of the corner of his eye as he came out of a random cottage in the Village. He saw one standing still and stared it for a few seconds then walked toward it "hello? Who goes there? Show yourself!"

He continued walking until he saw the details of the Myrddraal and stopped in his tracks, mouth agape. It took him less than a second to recognise it as a threat and unleashed a vicious wordless cutting curse at it. The Myrddraal dissipated into the mist and let out an eerie laugh. Snape's serene face started looking more panicked. He continued on, he looked up at the outline of the castle and headed toward it. Shooting cutting curses at the shadows, followed by laughs. At the gates of the castle was a Gentleman with its back to him, it then turned its head toward Snape, its body followed, turning slowly, floating. Snape shivered and prepared to release another curse, a Myrddaal screeched and flew toward him from the side and swung a sword that barely missed him. Mat wasn't trying to hurt him, just attempting to get Snape to leave. He presumed that Snape knew that he was in Mat's mind. Mat summoned more Myrddaal and Gentlemen around Snape, who was on the floor, he was trying to point his wand at all of them, he was sweating, eyes wide in panic.

"What are you doing here, Snape?" Mat asked, he materialised himself in front of his teacher, arms folded.

"Lawson?! What is the meaning of this?" Snape retorted, his fear seemingly lessening now he saw a familiar face.

"You are in my mind Professor. Now answer the question." He demanded.

Snape's anger overcame his fear and he let loose a bombarda at Mat and a couple of Myrddraal that were stood near Mat. He just smiled as the shockwave blew past him. It felt warm, like a summer breeze. Mat raised an eyebrow "Really? Your magic won't work in here. My mind, my rules" Mat grinned at him and nodded to the Professors wand and it disappeared. "If you want to learn my secrets, then fight your way to them."

Snape's mind was strong, disappearing his wand was harder than Mat thought it would be, it must be because of the mastery of his Occlumency and Legilimency. Mat then went back to his observation post in the sky. He smiled to himself as the Myrddraal and Gentlemen moved in for the kill. Two Myrddraal were about to stab him in the torso and one of the Gentlemen was about to grab him by the neck from behind. Snape rolled out of the way and then faster than Mat thought possible, ran through the Myrddraal and Gentlemen, through the castle gates. "The chase is on" Mat broadcasted over his mindscape. At that announcement, screeches, roars and other sounds erupted from everywhere. Snape had run up the hill and was outside of the castle doors when he turned behind to take in his surroundings. He saw a look of horror on the man's face as he saw swarms of chitinous horrors spewing forth from the outlying forest in a tidal wave of gnashing teeth and razor-sharp claws. His face turned fully white when he saw a lumbering Tyranid Hive Tyrant move through the tall trees. The Hive Tyrant saw him and roared. The ground shook.

A Tyranid Hive Tyrant is a massive 20 metre plus monster from the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Colours change from each hive fleet but this one was a pale off colour purple chitin shell on its upper parts with a creamy sickly white on the underneath. Its head had two beady, glowing green eyes and had vicious teeth in an almost grinning, lipless face, saliva dripping down its chin at all times. It had thick armour plating that ran down its back into a long whip-like tale. Its four arms were each different, one was a sword arm, another a sickle, the other a vicious clawed hand and the final one was a pincer. Its bi pedal legs ended with huge talons on its clawed feet. Running around its legs were smaller versions of the thing, thousands of them, in a huge wave, in different shapes and sizes, no two looked alike. They were built to kill. And Mat controlled them, and he told them to charge at Snape.

Snape quickly turned to open the huge wooden doors to the castle. Mat didn't let them open immediately and forced them to open slowly so Snape struggled to open them. Snape kept looking back and saw the Hive Tyrant charging at him, all the other creatures slowly making their way toward him, smaller creatures weaving in and out of its legs. As the lumbering beast and swarms of nasties edged closer, the door opened just a bit more. Snape was panicked now and was putting all his might into opening the door into the safe haven of the castle. They inched closer and were only a couple of meters away when Snape managed to squeeze through a gap in the door. He slammed it shut and leaned on it, panting. He looked back at it, expecting the creatures outside it to slam or scream or try to break through. Nothing came.

Silence was what greeted him. He looked around the entrance hall. It was nothing like the exterior, the stone was black, with black iron torches in sconces along the walls giving an ethereal green lighting. The hall was tall and long, there was hardly any decoration apart from pillars that held the ceiling up and had sharp spikes coming from all the corners. The room was completely bare, apart from a door on the far end, it had spikes coming through it, long sharp things made from an unknown black, shiny material. Snape cautiously made his way toward them, intent in knowing his students' secrets. As he got closer, they seemed to retract, but not all the way. He stood there for a few seconds, breathing heavily, worry clear on his face. He inched a bit closer and they all slowly pointed to him, as if they were looking at him. He realised that they were allowing him to enter. He ducked and shuffled his way inside. The spikes came down on him, not hard enough to pierce his flesh, but when he moved, they scratched him, like thousands of needles poking into his body and scratched mercilessly across his skin. His clothes were no hinderance to the spikes, but when his clothes from the right shoulder of his cloak caught on them and he pulled away, he jolted and got stuck with 10 spikes in the same shoulder. He screamed and wreathed and made the other spikes to stab him. They were only a centimetre deep, but they were painful none the less. They could impale him, but Mat wasn't allowing them too.

Snape was still for a moment and the spikes retracted. Pulling slowly out of his flesh. He was mainly stabbed in the back, legs, the back of the head and arms. He was whimpering and hissing in pain. He looked forward and saw that he was only a couple of metres through. In a bout of willpower that impressed Mat. He started moving forwards, slowly. If the person coming through here moved fast, they attacked. Snape figured this out clearly. A few more scratches later due to his clothes getting caught, he made it through and laid on the floor exhausted and in a lot of pain. He was covered in blood. His black bat-like robes were shiny with blood, and the blood appeared to make them blacker, if that was possible.

Mat was getting tired of this. He found it amusing with what Snape was going through, but he didn't really like seeing people in pain, even if they deserved it. He needed Snape out of his mind fast. So he sent a Xenomorph after him.

A Xenomorph is the alien from well… Alien. This specific one he sent was about 3 metres in height, had silver teeth, no eyes, a bulbous head that was elongated. Its body was made from pure black chitin and had a deadly elegance, its two arms ended in humanlike claw hands with viciously sharp talons, its feet were humanlike too but that's where the human similarities ended. The knees were reversed, and it had a tail as long as it was which ended in a curved spike, almost like a scorpion, dripping with venom.

The Xenomorph was on the ceiling looking down at the exhausted Snape. It let out a small hiss in warning, but Snape didn't take notice. So it moved slowly, acidic spit fell from its mouth and landed on the mans shoulder, straight into an open wound made from the spikes. He screamed in pain and covered the wound with his hand, causing the skin of his hand to sizzle. He gasped and looked up from where the drip came from. All he could see was silver teeth grinning at him from the darkness. He stared in horror as the Xenomorph slowly climbed down, its feet and claws barely making a sound on the floor, it raised its arms wide, stretching its talons, its face got close to Snape's, it hissed again and slowly opened its mouth, another mouth came out of that one slowly. It then retracted and shot out. If it wasn't for Snape's reflexes, it would have gone straight through his cheekbone, instead it left a large gash across his face.

The Xenomorph flinched back and screeched/screamed at him and shot the second mouth out again. Snape had started moving back by this point and was out of its range. He turned, crawled first and then got on his feet to run away. The Alien gave chase. He ran down a corridor then turned a corner, pushing off the wall in front of him, just in time as it crunched into the wall where Snape used to be. It stayed attached and ran after the man, still on the wall. Snape screamed in fear as he looked back to see the alien horror catching up to him. He saw a door in front of him and tried to open it. It wouldn't budge. He heard the alien screech/scream again as it lept upwards, arms splayed wide, ready to slice at him. A panicked Snape then decided enough was enough and poofed out of existence. Mat smiled, appeared next to the alien, stroked it like a pet and then disappeared from his mindscape into the real world.

VVVVVV

Mat's vision was blurry as he was coming back into full consciousness from his mindscape. He hadn't come out of it in public before. The class was loud, and Mat could hear voices but not the words. His vision slowly and painfully came back into focus. He could feel someone shaking him. He turned his head to see a concerned Cho Chang asking him something. He couldn't comprehend a word. He turned his head to where some kids were looking on the floor where Snape was. He shook his head and hissed in pain. His hands came up to his temples to try and relieve it. Luckily the pain put everything into focus again. "What?" Mat said, confused.

"What's wrong with you?" she asked, with concern clear on her face.

"errr" was his intelligent reply.

"We need to get a teacher, you don't look too well" it was true, he had a bitch of a headache.

Mat didn't know what to say, he was really out of it. He closed his eyes and laid his head on the table. The darkness helped.

He must have fallen asleep or something as he again felt someone nudging him and telling him to wake up, he grunted and looked up to see a Madam Pomfrey looking down at him. He assumed it was her, who else would wear a nurse's uniform from the 1920's? She even had one of those hat thingies with a green cross on it. He just stared at her numbly. She told him to get up, and he did, she asked Cho to take him to hospital wing which they did. Mat couldn't remember the trip. The attack by Snape must have knocked him for six.

The next thing he remembered was him waking up in a nice comfy bed with the typical hospital smell hitting his nostrils. Why did they always smell the same? Mat took in his surrounding as he was wont to do and realised, he was in fact in a hospital. There was a white partition, presumably separating his bed from the next one. Professor Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall were talking animatedly with Madam Pomfrey over a prone form in a bed on the other side of the room to Mat. They must have seen a movement out of the corner of their eye as they all turned as one to Mat as he sat up. Mat flinched back at that, it was a bit odd.

They came over and Pomfrey cast a diagnostic spell over him. McGonagall asked him what happened.

"I, erm, I don't know, Professor Snape looked at me and I got a massive headache. Everything else is hazy." He answered, not entirely lying but not telling the whole truth. They all turned to Madam Pomfrey when she hummed.

"There seems to be nothing wrong with him, but it does say that he was in a lot of pain a while ago, it doesn't say how though" she said. Looking at something only she could see. The diagnostic spell must be cast in such as way that the caster is the only one to see it, patient doctor confidentiality must be a thing here.

Mat looked at all three of them, when he got to Dumbledore, he felt a little nudge on his mind, but it felt gentle, he saw his eye twinkle. Mat immediately closed his mind off and Dumbledore withdrew whatever it was from him and nodded to Mat in acknowledgement. Must be Legilimency, he thought. Mat smiled in thanks. "Well, whatever it was only seems to have affected you and Severus. I have no idea when he will wake up. Looks like I will be taking over his classes for the time being." Dumbledore said, he sounded sad but Mat saw through the façade, he obviously enjoyed teaching.

Mat's classes were cancelled for the rest of the day and he had to stay in the hospital for observation which he was fine with. He delved back into his mindscape to fix any damage. He appeared like he did when Snape was there and floated near the top of the dome. There were cracks in it and a strange multicoloured miasma coming through. There were more of the swirls and weird faces near the cracks. Mat panicked and instantly went about to fix them. At first he couldn't think of how to do it. But it turns out that concentrating on fixing them did the trick. He stared intently and willed the cracks to heal and they did. He visibly saw the cracks closing up from top to bottom. He moved around to each one that he could see individually. He then moved down to the Village. It was trampled. He seemed to be gaining more strength with each thing he fixed and was feeling better the more whole the Village was. He didn't know how long he was, but he got it all finished.

When he came out of his mindscape, it was still dark, according to the windows he could see out of. No matter wherever they were, hospitals were creepy. It didn't help that there were actual ghosts floating around this one. There was a nurse ghost here, she didn't seem to do much, apart from float to each bed and check on the occupant. Even when there wasn't one, she checked anyway. When she came to Mat, she saw that he was awake and gave him a reassuring smile, which did reassure him somehow, and she moved on. He closed his eyed and tried to get some sleep.

He was woken up by Madam Pomfrey in the morning, a good hour before breakfast was served. She cast a diagnostic spell and declared him fit to leave. Which he did. The first port of call was to his dorms where he wanted to get a shower to freshen up, get changed and ask someone about what the rumour mill said about him from the day before. No one was awake when he entered, but as he was leaving the shower he bumped into Rand.

"Hey mate! You ok?" Rand asked, concern on his face. He was in his pyjamas, carrying a towel and a toothbrush.

"Yeah thanks man, I don't know what happened, glad it's over though" Mat replied, Rand agreed and said he was pleased he was ok. "Rand erm… what's the school saying about yesterday?"

Rand shuffled his feet, "erm, the Slytherins think you somehow attacked Snape, they're on the warpath for you. Dumbledore told everyone at the evening meal that you both came down with a magical illness. Everyone believes Dumbledore apart from, you know, the Slytherins." He replied, he gave a nervous grin and scratched the back of his head, making his messy red hair messier.

"Right, I'll keep an eye open for them, cheers mate". With that, Rand and Mat went their separate ways and didn't see each other until breakfast in the main hall. When Mat did enter the main hall, he had a feeling that someone was looking at him. He turned around to see that most of the Slytherin table were staring at him, most of them with anger and disgust. "This is gonna be a right ball ache" he said to himself as he made his way down to join Cho and the rest of the Ravenclaws. He slumped down on the pew and looked at all the food. He was starving! He didn't realise how hungry he was. He piled a full English on the plate, piled high with bacon, sausage, hash browns, mushrooms, tomato, toast, beans and black pudding. He ate it like a savage. Cho was just staring at him in both amusement and disgust. It wasn't until he was partially full when he realised he was eating like a pig. "Sorry" he told Cho and the few others around them, "not had anything to eat since yesterday's dinner". He got a few nod's and ok's from everyone and then everyone went back to eating. He did but far slower and more civilised.

After breakfast, they had double potions. Dumbledore was there bright and early. They were with Slytherin this time. Mat kept an eye out for idiot dick heads who were going to cause some shit. He was getting really pissed off at this school. It's not even been a week yet and he has a whole house against him. He took his seat, the same as the day before with Cho. The class settled down and it started. Nothing happened during the class, no one would dare with the headmaster in the room. But he could always feel and sense eyes on him. Every time he turned, he could see Carrow staring at him. He had two black eyes, that took away the menace he was trying to project. He was easily ignored.

Luckily nothing happened after class either, but he knew they would try something. They had flying with Gryffindor after lunch. That was fun, the feeling had gone during that class. Immediately after, when they were indoors, he could sense it again. It had him on edge.

Rand, Mat and Eddie were on their way back from tea in the great hall, on their way to chill out in the dorms before Astrology that night. They had just walked around a corner of the courtyard area of the main intersection of the school when 8 Slytherins were there, waiting for them. He immediately recognised Carrow, and his little crew, there were older years with them too. They all had their wands out. Mat saw them immediately and pulled both Rand and Eddie round the corner. He saw bits of stonework fly off as a couple of spells splashed on them.

"Fucking hell! What was that?" Eddie exclaimed. He was staring at Mat wide eyed Mat closed his eyes and placed his hand on the floor he extended I his magic so he could feel where they were. He could feel them getting closer, running at full speed.

"Have any of you been in a fight before?" they both shook their heads "fuck. 8 Slytherins are coming for us, either run or fight, just don't get in my way" Mat had his wand out, his fingers white with rage and nerves. He held the tip of the wand from behind the corner and shouted "Lomos Maxima!" He overcharged the spell so it was more of a flash than a light, much like his flashbang, he couldn't show anyone that he could do that yet.

There were a few screams and Mat ran at them form around the corner, shoulder-barged the first one and took in the state of them. Two of them were fine as they were behind the five who were affected, the blinded ones were lashing their arms around comically. He acted by first punching Carrow's nose and with a sickening crunch, broke it… again. He then headbutted another one who was readying to cast a spell who wasn't blinded. He threw the headbutted kid over his back and into the other non-blinded lad and kicked that one in the stomach when they were both on the floor. He walked casually up behind an another one, kneed behind his knee to unbalance him and punched him in the jaw, knocking him out. The one he shoulder-barged to the floor was trying to get up so Mat uppercutted him and knocked him out. He heard a faint "Petrificus totalus" from behind him and saw Rand cast one on a boy who was pointing a wand a Mat, he nodded to him in thanks. It was the body-binding curse. He did the same on the rest of them. Carrow was moaning and holding his nose on the floor pathetically. The others were in a similar state. Professor McGonagall ran round the corner as Mat finished casting his last body-binding curse.

She waded through the lot of them with a look of pure fury, her eyes locked on Mat "explain" she demanded. Mat was actually quite frightened. Luckily he didn't have to say anything as Eddie came from behind the corner and did it for him.

"They were waiting for us Miss! If it wasn't for Mat, we would have been hurt!" Rand, who was looking at Eddie nodded in agreement as he turned to McGonagall. His eyes wide with fear.

Mat slumped against the wall, adrenaline catching up with him. He sat on the floor, wand in hand. McGonagall turned to him and all he could do was shrug. She huffed. "The headmaster will have to look into this. How did you do all this?" she asked.

Mat showed her his swollen knuckle where he hit the boys. His hands were shaking. "I read the spells before I came."

"Impressive yet unnerving. Violence of any kind will not be tolerated at this school Mr Lawson." She sent a corporeal Patronus to some other teachers to get them to come to the scene. Pomfrey was the first to come and she immediately went to the loudest moaning boy who were keeled over after a quick glance at Mat.

Professor Flitwick took him to see the headmaster. Mat stayed silent as there was no point in digging a hole. They walked toward a doorway that was guarded by two stone gargoyles. Flitwick said the password, "humbug", to the gargoyles, and they animated and moved aside, a spiral staircase also animated and made its way up to Dumbledore's office. Flitwick made his way to the stairs and asked Mat to follow, he did. They reached a nondescript door, knocked and the muffled voice of Dumbledore bid them enter. "Aahh Professor Flitwick, how may I help you?"

"Hello Professor Dumbledore, looks like Mat's been getting into trouble again" Flitwick told him.

Mat took in the contents of the room he was in and was astounded. The floor was a soft red carpet. There were two columns which rose high into a pointed arch that separated two sides of the room. At the entrance side were shelves upon shelves of devices, Mat could scarcely begin to guess their meaning. There were things that spun, things that floated, things that appeared to be balancing on nothing and things that just defied gravity. There must have been hundreds of them on the walls. There was a perch in this part, but was empty, it had a pile of ash on bowl like area which must be there to catch the birds mess. Through the arch was Dumbledore, today he was in a bright pink robe and matching hat. He was sat at a very grand table, expertly carved, it was neatly organised and had papers in piles. It appeared to have animals intertwined with each other on the legs, they looked suspiciously like the House creatures. The chair was thronelike, almost like the one in the great hall. Behind him were numerous previous headmasters and headmistresses in paintings. They filled the walls, it was half circle and they went well up toward the ceiling. They were all staring down at Mat. That felt weird.

"What's happened this time Matthew my boy?" Dumbledore asked. So Mat told him that there were 8 Slytherin kids waiting for him and his mates and what Mat did. He raised an eyebrow as Mat described what he did to them. "Is that so, I am used to fights happening in this school, but no one has ever done so like you Mr Lawson. In their first week as well." He gave Mat his disappointed grandfatherly look.

"I know sir, but what am I supposed to do? Let them hurt me?" Mat asked.

"Of course not, you have every right to defend yourself. You must understand that you are also at fault here for hurting them like you did. I must have to place you in detention for this, you understand?" Dumbledore preached. Mat did understand and took full responsibility.

"I can't promise not to do this again, if I get attacked or see anyone else getting attacked, I will take action, I can promise you that sir. But I won't go looking for a fight, you have my word." Mat gave Dumbledore a look which he tried to make him look as sincere as he felt.

"I can work with that Matthew, you will have to have detention for 2 weeks with Hagrid I'm afraid" Mat accepted that and that was the end of that meeting. He didn't have detention that night due to it being Astrology and so he went back to the dorm with Flitwick.

His head of house pulled him to the side before they entered. "Matthew, I see that you have a protective instinct about you, a fighter. I was most impressed with how you fought those boys, you remind me of when I was young. I was on the duelling circuit you know? Was the champion in fact. Once you get your head on your shoulders and prove to me you won't have outbursts and control your temper, I could offer to tutor you to duel if you like?"

Mat stared at the diminutive professor in shock. He didn't expect this, at all. But he couldn't pass up this opportunity. "Of course Professor, I'd be honoured too!" and he was.

"Excellent. Now be on your way, Astrology is in 5 hours." Wit that he turned and left. Mat went to his dorms to chill.


	12. Chapter 12

VVVVVV

After the incident with Snape, the rest of the week in class went fine for Mat. His Astrology lesson went well. Some Wizarding kids marvelled at the power of the muggle telescope. Turns out the wizarding telescopes were as archaic as Mat thought. Apparently, the builders refused to accept that muggles could build anything better than they could. Regardless, Mat was not the first or the only one to bring a muggle telescope to Astrology. One other kid, a Hufflepuff named Matthew Summers, Matty to everyone else, had brought one, his dad was a muggle and was an amateur astrologist. The other classes were not very exciting for the rest of the first week. He did have another run in with Carrow and his band of tools though.

They tried to pick on a kid called Cormac McLaggen. Mat remembered him vaguely from the movies, he was very unmemorable. Carrow was pointing his wand at Cormac whilst two of his goons were holding him down. Mat used the same tactic as before and set off flashbangs, he knew where they were now though so aimed three low powered ones right next to their heads and set them off at the same time. He ran in and flying kneed Carrow in his kidney, sending him flying into the wall, breaking his nose again. He quickly incapacitated the other two by an uppercut elbow to the one on the right of Cormac, who was holding his head in his hands screaming, and to the one on the left, who was silently screaming and was looking around like a tit, Mat punched him in his jaw knocking him out.

Mat turned to Cormac then, who was sitting with his back against the wall looking up at Mat in wonder. "You alright?" Mat asked.

"Errr, yeah thanks, that was amazing!" Cormac exclaimed.

Mat just smiled and held out his hand pulling him up, "I'm Mat".

"Cormac" he said after he brushed himself off.

"Nice to meet you, mate. Come on, let's get out of here." Mat said.

Cormac agreed and they walked together to the library. Mat took in what Cormac looked like now they were out of potential danger. He was of similar height to Mat, had pale-ish skin and curly, short blonde hair with blue eyes. Like most of the kids in Hogwarts, he was wearing his uniform at the time. He learned that Cormac's family were 'big in the ministry', whatever that meant. And like his name suggested, he had a Scottish accent, though Mat couldn't place from where.

VVVVVV

Snape was out of it for a couple of weeks, Dumbledore had taken over potions and was an excellent teacher. The teaching room smelt much better since the last time Mat was there. Apart from Snape, Mat had no problems with the teachers here, even though they still had that annoying habit of not giving anyone the chance to react when they said to do something. Mat seemed to excel at Defence Against the Dark Arts. Professor Quirrell was quickly becoming his favourite teacher after Flitwick. DADA was awesome, they learned how to counter dark curses and watch out for certain animals that were considered dark. Strangely Banshee's were considered dark, Quirrell explained that the ministry considered any creature that was inherently violent or could easily kill someone was classed as dark but not inherently evil. Cho Chang asked about the banshees that performed with Celestina Warbeck which Quirrell explained that some have been known to interact with people but most are very territorial and protect their area viciously. Mat wondered to himself what it meant to have banshee wisp in his wand. He decided to speak to Ollivander about that and thought about sending him a letter.

True to his word, Flitwick called for Mat on the Monday of his second week in Hogwarts, they were in the Charms classroom and Flitwick explained to him what he was going to teach Mat. He couldn't contain his excitement.

"Now then Mr Lawson, I have heard of a couple of rumours of you having another fight with some other children, you need to learn how to control yourself and incapacitate people without causing damage. This will be my first lesson to you. Firstly, show me how you would stand if you were to engage an opponent with your wand" Flitwick told Mat in his jolly high-pitched voice.

Mat turned to the side slightly, had good footing which was not too far apart and not too close together, so he had a good central balance. He pointed his wand away from himself but not arm outstretched, he held it like he would a knife, clinical yet flexible. He opened his left hand slightly to point in front of him toward the imaginary opponent, he stopped doing that when Flitwick raised an eyebrow. Flitwick then walked around him, nodding approvingly.

"Very strong stance indeed, Mr Lawson, I could give you a couple of pointers but there would be no point until we figure out your strengths and weaknesses." He summoned a training dummy from across the room "I will teach you some first year spells which you could use in battle and would be effective against some of the greatest duellers out there, even I got hit by a couple of these when I was in the circuit." He nodded to himself while getting out his wand. "The first one, I am sure you have you have read about is the body-binding curse, _Petrificus Totalus!" _Flitwick barked at the training dummy. It was wobbling around like a tube man until it was hit with the curse. Then it went rigid and toppled over like a tree. "You perform with a rounded swish, a line and then a quick flick upwards while incanting the spell, like so." He showed Mat how to do it, Mat nodded and closed his eyes, concentrating before performing the curse. Flitwick then deactivated the curse and the training dummy and it sprang up, wobbling its arms around again.

"_Petrificus Totalus!"_ Mat shouted. The spell shot off perfectly and the dummy did exactly the same with what happened when Flitwick performed the curse. Mat grinned.

"Excellent! Excellent! Perfect casting, I will now demonstrate the tripping jinx…"

They practiced for a good two hours, Mat was having fun and he had over 20 new spells he could cast in his arsenal. He only had 30 minutes to get some food, so he ran off to get some, tired yet invigorated at the speed at which he was learning.

The classes of the first semester went smoothly for Mat and his fellow Ravenclaw's. He continued his private lessons with Flitwick, he had them twice a week. He also started having private lessons with Babbling in runes. It was mainly theory at the moment, but with the rate he was memorising clusters and the runes themselves, he wouldn't be far off carving them soon.

VVVVVV

Outside of the classes was annoying. Carrow and his merry band of purebloods were on his case all the time and small skirmishes were a weekly occurrence. Nothing serious though. Fighting Slytherins wasn't the only case of violence that Mat was involved in.

It was about three weeks into the semester, and he was just coming out of Ravenclaw tower, heading for the Library, when Mat overheard some shouting and what he thought were two girls screaming. He rushed to the end of the hallway, believing it was more Slytherin boys harassing some other kids. Mat seemed to have built up a protective reputation over the weeks he was in Hogwarts. He activated his magic and pulled out his wand as he was closing in on the corner. As he turned he was surprised to see some 7th year Gryffindor's shooting spells at two first year Slytherin's. He was not amused.

There were three of them all together. The one who Mat assumed was the leader was laughing while he shot spells at the two girls. He was, at this point, shooting some water out of his wand at them while his mate was holding their wands, leering at them with a feral grin. He aimed and activated three low-ish powered flashbangs next to the three boy's heads. The third boy was on lookout and activated a protego maxima as soon as he saw Mat turn the corner. The explosions went off like were planned and he hit the first two dead on. They collapsed to the floor, completely disorientated. The lookout was much more prepared and the protego protected him from the flashbang. Mat slowed to a walk taking in the surroundings and keeping his eye on the lookout.

"Oi! What do you think you're doing?" the lookout shouted at Mat.

Mat eyed him "what's it look like?"

"It looks like your looking for a fight, firstie. You spoilt our fun, now I'm going have some on you!" the lookout shouted at Mat. He dropped his shield and immediately shot a silencing charm, jelly legs and a stunning spell at Mat. "_Silencio! Cruso labo! Stupify!"_

_Mat widened his eyes and quickly dived out of the way, all three sailed harmlessly past him while Mat hid behind one of the suits of armour. Mat was panting and scenarios were bouncing around in his head. "Right" he thought "how to take him down fast?". He quickly picked a few spells from his small arsenal and decided to peek his head out from his hiding spot to see where the lookout was. As soon as he did a spell was coming straight for him "Shit!" He swore. The lookout was walking straight for him, on guard but obviously not used to fighting with the way he was walking with his wand pointed straight out and not at an angle. Mat decided to squeeze around the armour to pop out at him unawares. He looked up to the statue and he saw it glow in a strange pale white light and its head turned toward him "oh shit" _Mat swore again as he dived away. The suit of armour fell off its plinth at Mat and clattered on the floor, pieces of arm or clattering every which way.

"Fuck sake" Mat growled. He prepared to cast a flocking charm and body binding curse. He heard the lookout whisper a leg-locking curse. Mat was slightly faster at casting. "_Avis_!" he shouted, and a flock of jet-black birds shot out of his wand. The lookout managed to cast his leg-locking curse, but it went wide. Mat carried on casting the flocking charm until he could get a good visual on the lookout and cast the body binding curse. The lookout was flapping his arms about trying to hit the birds so was completely open for Mat to cast the body bind "_Petrificus Totalus!"_ he yelled, and the lookout went as stiff as a rod and fell backwards. He did the same to the other two who were only just coming around from the bombardment against their senses. He made sure they were incapacitated and then turned to the two girls who were cowering in the corner, staring at him with a mix of fear and admiration, their eyes as wide as a deer in headlights.

He gave them a nod "you okay?" he asked the girls, who he recognised as Pomona Nott and Arianna Murray, two of the girls who were in his boat on the Black Lake.

Pomona quickly came to her senses and schooled her face to her usual pureblood features and got up, slowly followed by Arianna. "Why?" Pomona asked.

"Why what?" Mat replied.

"Why save us? You're not a Slytherin." She said.

"So? I saw two kids being bullied, doesn't matter which house they are in. I don't like it either way." Mat answered. They both stared at him like he had grown a third head. Mat just gave them a reassuring smile and held his arm out for Pomona to take. Which she did and she ushered Arianna to come with "where were you two going anyway?" Mat asked them.

"We were going to the Library until…" Arianna replied, looking back at the paralyzed trio of Gryffindor bullies.

"What a coincidence! So was I!" Mat exclaimed, making them both giggle. He was trying to keep their spirits up after the whole ordeal. He hoped it was working. He started some small talk with them trying to get to know them better. They were much more friendly, yet also a bit more guarded after what happened. It was a bit of a conundrum to Mat. Regardless, they went to the library to study and that was that. He hoped that there would be less shit between the Slytherins and himself now.

VVVVVV

The next few months were rather uneventful all things considered. Mat had made a name for himself for being brutally effective as a bully deterrent. Nearly all of it had stopped and the school seemed to be all the happier for it. Snape came back into potions and carried on like his usual self, but completely ignoring Mat as if he wasn't there, Mat found that hilarious. Potions was as shitty class as he thought it would be and they only learned by figuring stuff out themselves.

He also started exploring the castle and finding new places to train and keep himself fit. He discovered that around the black lake was empty in the early mornings, so he went running around it a couple of times every day. He also went to discover the Room of Requirement.

He discovered it by pacing three times in front of where it should be and wishing for the room to appear. Turns out it was exactly where the books and movies said it was, right in front of the portrait of Barnabas the Barmy and his attempt at getting trolls to do the ballet. He walked into the room and couldn't help but smile. It was a full-on gym complete with ring and punching bags. There were some practice dummies with their hands up as if ready to spar. He started going there every other day to keep himself sharp and alert.

His personal training sessions with Babbling and Flitwick went extremely well. When he duelled Flitwick for training, he got his arse kicked every time by the diminutive professor. He was extremely good. Mat learned by leaps and bounds during this time with Flitwick, adding many spells to his arsenal and used them to great affect with his opponent. He was becoming intimately familiar with the spell he cast more often and found that he barely had to move his wand to cast them. He asked Flitwick about this. He explained that as wizards get used to the spell, the less action they have to do to cast it. Mat then asked about the incantation itself and he was told that wizards, over time sometimes don't say the incantation, but that was usually reserved for the most adept and powerful wizards and witches. Mat knew this already but decided to claim ignorance on the subject. He could feel himself getting more powerful, he knew he was one of the most powerful wizards in the school on pure magical power, due to the way he could perform his flashbangs and personal shield.

It was during one of these combat sessions that he was in a particularly strenuous bout with Flitwick that he unconsciously activated his sine site. What he saw made Flitwick see an opening in Mat's defences and so he cast an extremely powerful disarming charm which numbed Mat's hand in the process. Mat hissed, held his hand to his chest then bowed in submission to being defeated, which was custom apparently in a wizard's duel.

"What happened Mr Lawson? You lost concentration, most unlike you" he walked up to Mat giving him a concerned look as he came closer, looking up at him as he did.

"Yeah I know, I just thought I saw something is all" Mat replied, looking at the wand in his hand.

"Interesting, what do you think you saw?"

"Honestly? I don't know, I think I can see the spell before it's cast. Like, I could see what you were going to cast before you did. It's hard to explain" Mat said.

"Hmmm, can you describe what you saw?"

"Yeah, like a mist flowing up from the elbow and into the wand"

"I see, very unusual. If I cast a spell, do you think you could try and see it again? Why don't you say the spell before I shoot it?" Flitwick suggested. Mat nodded in agreement and tried to focus and watched Flitwick get ready to cast something. Flitwick aimed at a training dummy he had summoned and shot a spell at it, the same disarming spell he cast earlier. Mat shook his head to say he didn't see it. He then closed his eyes and focussed his Sine Sight and nodded for Flitwick to cast again.

Mat could see the spell form this time, it went extremely quickly and so he couldn't see what is was. He said as much. He asked Flitwick to cast it again and tell him what he casted. It turned out that each spell had its own colour. The disarming spell had a grey colour, almost like an absence of colour, if that was possible. They tried a few more, the darker magics had darker colours, usually it was curses that had these, the cutting curse for example, had a dark red, like blood and the healing spell, a bright golden colour. The even though the darker the spell had a darker colour it turned out that some spells had the same colour, but different shades of it. So the blood replenishing spell had a bright blood red colour. Mat didn't recognise them immediately and it would be something he would have to practice on. This would be a very affective skill to have. Turns out that Sine Sight would be an extremely handy skill and he was curious as to what else he could do with it in the future.

VVVVVV

Runes were going swimmingly, and he was learning how to carve them. He was given small pieces of slate to practice rune clusters on. He was given a sort of stylus which he was to carve the runes on with. It was extremely sharp, sharp enough to scratch the slate. Mat found this very therapeutic and couldn't wait to start enchanting stuff with them. He wasn't allowed to activate any of the runes yet. The idea was to get him confident with understanding the runes so he could notice if any rune clusters were wrong before they were activated. The consequences of a faulty rune cluster could be deadly.

Overall, Mat's first semester went well, he was absorbing the magical knowledge like a sponge and was at the top of most of his classes, he was in the middle of classes such as Herbology, Potions, Flying and History of Magic. He just didn't really care for them as much. Turns out his hatred for heights had continued into this life. He had read most of the history of the magical world already and had filed that away in his Palace. With Herbology and Potions, he understood the benefits but just had a general disinterest in them.

Mat's main goal was to befriend as many people as he could and try and form alliances, he left the older kids for when they had left Hogwarts and Lawson Enterprises could snap up the potentials. Mat focussed on his year and some others older than him. He had already befriended the Weasley Twins and had contracted them to terrorise Carrow and his little crew sometimes. He knocked about with the Twins every so often, hanging about and sometimes planning pranks on people, usually on Filch, he was as much of a wanker as he was in the films. Out of all the Gryffindor's, he had, kind of good, relations with Cormac McGlaggen and Katie Bell. Cormac was always happy to see Mat, he thought it was due to Mat saving him. Katie was very friendly and Mat liked her, she was always with Angelina Johnson for some reason, they were probably friends before they came to Hogwarts. He had partially befriended Lee Jordan due to being mates with the Weasley Twins, but that was as far as it went.

The Slytherin's were proving to be annoying to socialise with, but it was coming along slowly after the incident with Pomona and Arianna. The two of them and their friend, Olympe, didn't dismiss Mat anymore and were quite open to conversation with him, but he had to initiate conversation with them. Turns out that Pomona was quite witty and funny when she wanted too. Arianna was timid and shy but had a keen intelligence. Olympe was naturally bubbly but put on a stern façade, her smile lit up the room, Mat commented on that which made her blush.

Nearly all the Ravenclaw's in his year were friendly with him, Cho was a naturally friendly yet a bit of a quiet girl, Mat liked her. Marietta Edgecombe was in fact a very nice girl, very supportive and defensive of Cho, that was the only person she was like that with. She was always cordial and nice to Mat, and so he was to her as well. Milly Jackson was very clumsy and had a short fuse, yet she had a keen intellect and was very inventive when she wanted to be. Mat was stuck at the hip with Eddie, Rand and Craig. The four of them were hardly separate, Mat appeared to be the leader, which he was fine with. Eddie was a smart and determined lad, had his nose in a book nearly all the time, didn't speak that often. Rand was also quiet and didn't speak that much to Mat, though he did ask about runes when he saw Mat reading up on them, turns out he wanted to learn about them too, so Mat decided to tutor him a bit. Craig and Rand ended up best mates, when they weren't with Mat and Eddie, they were always together. Craig wasn't an overly smart person but when he set his mind to something he was extremely determined. Marcus Belby was a loner and refused to socialise with any of them.

The Hufflepuffs were a bit of a conundrum. They were always distant yet friendly to Mat and he found it difficult to truly think they could become allies. He was trying to befriend them but for some reason he couldn't. They appreciated him and always thanked him when he had stopped some kids bullying Hufflepuffs, but that was it. The closest he could get too seemed to be Matthew Summers, and that was only because he was in his class. Mat decided to put that on the back burner for the time being and see if anything natural occurred.

Mat still did his usual thing of helping kids with their work. Nearly all of them were receptive apart from the Slytherins, they appeared to feel they were too good for his help. Mat could tell that Arianne, Pomona and Olympe wanted to agree to his help but something was holding them back. Their grades were not as good as the rest of the houses.

He was generally pleased with himself over this school year so far. He had gained some friends and allies, made a name for himself and became more powerful and knowledgeable over this first semester. Christmas quickly creeped up on them and everyone, including Mat was looking forward to going home.

VVVVVV

The trip from Scotland was a boring affair, there was a weird mix of excitement and sadness emanating from the kids on the train. The Express pulled up in London, he shared a cabin with Eddie, Rand and Craig on the way down, Rand had his nose basically pressed against the window, he missed his parents. The train pulled in and everyone clambered out to find whoever they were supposed to meet. Mat found his parents quickly enough. They went to meet with his Nana and Grandad which was a pleasant surprise. Instead of going straight home, they stayed in London for a couple of nights on a little family shopping holiday.

They got home and once everything was settled, Mat asked them how the company and recruitment was going. He was informed that everything was going fine, profits were up, they had found a couple of wizards and witches to join them who were grateful of the opportunity but didn't fully trust Lawson Enterprises, which was fair enough. The muggle military part was also going well, they were gaining contacts both abroad and in the UK. Bear in mind it wasn't too long after The Troubles, so people were a bit paranoid about speaking to people about arms deals and ex-soldiers. The three wizards and two witches were all muggleborns who had been forced out of work due to pureblood bigotry and the goblins, true to their word, had mentioned Lawson Enterprises to them to gain their interest. Four of them had already started semi training with Mat's uncle and his mate, they were mainly scouting potential training areas and finding new people to join them.

Clair Darby was a 30 odd year old muggleborn witch who had just been taken on by Lawson Enterprises and agreed to tutor Mat in Runes over the Christmas period. She was a kindly person, had shoulder length blonde hair that framed the face and had bright blue eyes. Dressed in muggleborn clothes she did not look like a witch at all, she them that she was living in both the wizarding world and the muggle world and could blend in well in both. A floo had been set up and Mat was waiting in the library for her on Monday afternoon. She stepped out with books held to her chest and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw the library. She eventually noticed Mat walking up to her and smiled at him while also taking in the rest of the Library. Mat did admit, the designer had done a stellar job. It was a classical looking place with huge windows that lit up every corner, it had a large central oak table and a couple of booths nestled underneath a couple of windows. It also had a rich green carpet and an archway which was hidden to muggles which had the magical section of the library that was a mirror image of the one she was in. She placed the books on the table and held her hand out to Mat. "Hi, Mat?"

He took her hand, "yep, Clair?"

"Yep" she replied. "aren't you a bit young for studying runes?" she asked "you mum didn't actually say how old you were."

He smiled back, "I started this year, but Babbling said I'm a prodigy. Fancy that?"

"Huh, well, let's see what you can do eh?"

Mat decided to not beat around the bush and basically lectured Clair on what he knew about runes and what he wanted to use them for. "I've had an idea bouncing around in my head ever since I found out about runes. I want to make a rune cluster that can help muggle electronics work in a magical place. I have a laptop in my trunk at Hogwarts and have it in a magic nulling field which I thought would work. But the bloody thing blew up when I turned it on. So, I think that we could buy some cheap electrical things and carve runes on them to get a basic understanding of what we need to do. Also we need to understand why magic affects electronics, especially more complicated electronics." Clair sat there, blinking without an expression on her face. Mat thought that he's broke her somehow "errr, Clair?" he tapped her on the leg and she jumped.

"Why haven't I thought about that before? That's a brilliant idea!" Clair exclaimed. Mat could only partially take the credit for the idea, after all, he did steal it from other fanfics in his old world. The next few weeks were full of Christmassy things and attempting to get runes to work with electronics. They did the testing in the magical side of library, turns out that magical books gave out ambient magic, which was enough to interfere with electrical objects.

The magic nulling runes didn't work, apparently magic nulling is still magic. So, they attempted magical absorption. That did work, to a certain extent. So because they had a baseline of what to do, they etched small runes clusters into the casing of the object to suck the ambient magic out of it and store it somewhere else. It was a complicated rune and took a large amount of power to activate. They got a plastic radio, took the outer shell off and etched runes on the inside of it. They linked the runes to a small housing container which they invented to store the magic in and stuck it to the side. Mat was extremely happy to discover that the radio worked perfectly. They could make money out of this. He decided to pitch the idea to the goblins and make money selling this stuff in Diagon Alley. They would need time to research and mass produce so they could add the runes clusters to other pieces of tech. He thought that he could take the radio prototype to school, he missed music and keeping up to date with current events, maybe catch the odd football matches on Radio 5. Mat gave Clair the promotion which she happily accepted and commissioned her to run the project. Lawson Enterprises had now officially had a foot in the magical world.

Mat had two other tasks to complete over the Christmas holiday, one was to send an anonymous letter to Amelia Bones about Sirius Black. He got in contact with the Goblins about making sure it could not be traced back to him. The letter read:

_Dear Ms Bones. _

_You do not know me. I have recently been researching into the aftermath and the convictions of wizards and witches after the 2__nd__ wizarding war. One particular case popped out at me of a Mr Sirius Black. I cannot find any public information on the trial which sent him to Azkaban. May I commission a copy of the trial transcripts? Otherwise there would have to be a public inquest of why a member of the illustrious Black family was imprisoned without trial. Please deposit a response into Gringotts Vault number 5301._

_Kind Regards,  
Unknown_

_P.S. He will return._

He thought that was mysterious enough to raise suspicion and hoped that Bones follows it up and hopefully get the ball rolling fast enough for Black to possibly take custody of Harry, considering the man was sane enough.

He also sent a letter to Ollivander, asking him about the reason behind banshee wisp in his wand. The man wrote back explaining that banshees have an innate connection with sound and are highly protective of their home. He also said that they are a variant of siren, while sirens lure sailors into their den with their beautiful singing and consume them, banshees prefer to kill any invader that they perceive a threat. The banshee wisp in his wand would be powerful with protective spells and powerful offensive spells as well as darker spells, due to the banshee's nature. The Alkonost hair was excellent in the finer magic, such as transfiguration and lighter spells such as healing due to the Alkonost's nature of being a light creature and its personality of being joyful. Alkonost hair would be the best in mind magics though, their singing was known to be so beautiful that people forgot what they were doing and entire wars were stopped to listen to the music. While the two cores were technically opposites in every way, the pear wood's ability for resilience helped in binding the two together to create a truly powerful wand, second only to horned serpent core and elder wood wands, of which none have ever been sold to his knowledge.

Having his curiosity sated and piquing other people's interest in certain people, Mat happily went back to Hogwarts after Christmas came and went. He set up his radio in the dorm room which became hugely popular in the Ravenclaw tower, especially on Saturdays with the football and the small gathering they had with some of the older students. He had received information that Clair had perfected the radio rune clusters and could create them faster and with less magic. Mat got her to send him 4 radios, he gave one to each house, this made him hugely popular, he told the kids what he had designed and what the future plans were for this stuff. Some of the purebloods outright snubbed it especially in Slytherin but Olympe, of all people loved it when he gifted it to the three girls.

VVVVVV

He was walking back from his nightly spar with the practice dummies in the Room of Requirement when Mat's arms and legs snapped to his side and he fell flat against the floor, his nose erupted in splash of blood and he could see stars. He activated his Sine Site to get awareness of what was going on. He couldn't move, and panic started to creep in. He could feel and see splashes of light of the footsteps coming slowly toward him from three directions. He couldn't identify who they were due to the pounding in his head and the panic. He heard Carrow's voice, "we got him! The filthy mudblood isn't as smart as he thought he was." Mat could hear the smile in his voice and he became furious.

They levitated him and turned him over, one of Carrow's goons holding him up while Carrow himself was pointing a wand to Mat's face. "Carrow" Mat hissed.

"That's right you filthy mongrel, I've got you now, _Diffindo_!" Carrow whispered. Mat screamed as the cutting curse slowly cut his face open. Carrow smiled in glee, his eyes wide as the cut bled, dribbled down Mat's face and dripped to the floor.

"Stop now you little cunt!" Mat screamed at Carrow, "I will destroy you!" he raged impotently.

"What you gonna do? You can't punch me this time halfbreed." Carrow responded "_Diffindo" _he whispered, opening another cut on Mat's forehead.

Mat screamed again, this cut was slower than the last one, he unleashed his magic, not knowing what it would do, or if it would do anything. He couldn't for the life of him cast spells without hand gestures so he didn't think he could anything, he tried anyway. He screamed in rage, his eyes focussed on Carrow, the boy opened another cut on Mat's arm, it was the longest one yet, he took his time with this one as well. Bringing it down from his shoulder toward the elbow. Mat took a big deep breath in and shouted at Carrow, a pure, primal scream. A golden pulse of pure energy exploded from Mat's mouth into the face of Carrow. The boy flew backwards, into the wall of the corridor, the primal scream pinning him there. The boy couldn't move, and blood started coming out of his ears. He was screaming back but Mat couldn't hear him. The magic was pushing its way out of Mat's mouth in pure golden energy and he felt a sharp pain in his side. One of Carrow's goons, Mat turned his head as much as he could and the energy only just hit the goon on the shoulder, it sent him hurtling away down the corridor. Mat then dropped to the floor as the third goon released the levitation spell on him. He ran over to Carrow who was sat up against the wall he had slid down from, picking him up and dragging him away. Carrow barely walking. The trio fled the scene while Mat's magic kept pouring out of him.

The golden energy started pulsing, like a kick drum, Mat couldn't reel it in. He was shouting at one spot and he saw that with each pulse the ground shook and the wall he was staring at started to crack. More pulses shot out of him, into the wall in front. Mat was on the verge of passing out. More pulses and now more powerful shockwaves were pouring out of him. The walls started cracking even more. Mat watched a large crack snake up the wall into the ceiling and a large boulder broke off. It hurtled straight towards his head. He knew no more.

VVVVVV

Mat woke up to the rustling of sheets next to him, he was exhausted. Madame Pomphrey was fussing over him while he laid in bed. He moaned, reaching up to his head which felt was splitting open. He noticed his arm was bandaged, but he didn't really care, the pain was unbearable, he moaned then hissed as his hand touched his temple. "shh shh shh, it's ok, just stay still dear, you're in the hospital wing. You've had some serious damage done to you, nothing that I couldn't fix." She gave a reassuring smile which did in fact, reassure him. She gave him a potion that he drank without hesitation.

"Jesus!" Mat coughed and spluttered "the chuff is in that?!" He was more focussed on the foul taste of the potion that he didn't realise that the pain in his head had disappeared.

She just smiled again, "just a simple pain killer and nutrient potion dear, now rest up. You are not to leave this bed for any reason apart from the loo. Not just my orders, but the headmaster's as well. You've had a serious case of magical exhaustion and serious injuries, you were in quite the state when professor Snape brought you in."

Mat looked at her in shock "Snape? Snape brought me here?"

"Yes, Professor" she emphasised the professor "Snape brought you here. He said you had lost control of your magic and collapsed a part of the castle corridor. You should thank him when you next see him. You were bleeding heavily and would have been in a much worse state if he hadn't brought straight to me". With that she turned away brooking no argument from Mat.

He settled down in the bed and tried to relax, he tried to go into his mind palace but that didn't work. Maybe due to the magical exhaustion? He needed to replay the events of what happened and make sure it didn't happen again, and if it did, he had to make sure he could control it. Could he replicate the scream again? If he could, that would be a major boon. He also needed to contain any collateral and also train even harder so he would not be ambushed again. He got complacent. He had learned first-hand that even the most untrained idiot could take him down if he got complacent. He remembered the feeling of when he fell to the floor. He was scared, that's the first proper time he felt scared in this world. He vowed to never let that happen again, there was too much at stake.

VVVVVV

After one potions class, Mat waited until everyone had left and walked up to Snape who watched him over the book he was reading. "What is it?" he drawled.

"Thanks for taking me to the hospital wing the other night." Mat said. Not backing down or showing any kind of intimidation.

"Don't do it again, I do not want to waste anymore time taking you to the infirmary during your time here, boy" he then basically dismissed Mat by turning back to the book he was reading. Mat shrugged and walked away. That was probably the most civil conversation he had with him.

VVVVVV

Over time Mat got stronger and stronger. He couldn't fully recreate the Primal Scream, but he could create something similar, it took a lot of energy out of him. He thought that it may because his core isn't big enough yet, but he should be able to do it in the future and it would take less energy the more he did it, like most magical abilities. Only time would tell.

The resentment with Carrow and his group of cockwombles had spilt over into a sort of war between him and his peers. Carrow was usually outnumbered. Slytherin's, if they were close, usually joined on his side but some eventually decided to not get involved when small skirmishes broke out in the school hallways. It was always Carrow and his goons who were the initiators. They nearly always lost. When they won it was because Mat wasn't with them. Due to the tensions in the school, Mat decided to offer some of his friends to fight properly and teach them a few things that Flitwick taught him about wizards duelling. This way he could hone his martial skills as well as magical.

He had managed to get a small group of people to join his little combat club. The Twins had joined, as well as Lee Jordan, Angelina Johnson and Alicia Spinnet, they were there for the early engagements and took out some older Slytherins when they joined in. All the Gryffindor's in Mat's year had joined, Katie Bell, Cormac Mclaggen, Agatha Koch, Gregor Findlay, Evie-Grace Hendricks, Ty Shah and Sakina Smyth. Mat had relations with them all and he was happy they did. None of the Hufflepuffs joined, Mat was a bit pissed off with them for that, but it wasn't unexpected. If they did see anything happening in the corridors, they protected people from spells but never fought back. All the Ravenclaws in Mat's year, apart from Marcus Belby had joined. They told Mat they only became because they were in the firing line due to being associated with him. But Mat saw the gleam in Cho's eye when they said that which suggested that she was excited to learn.

The group had formed mainly due to information from Pomona about the older Slytherins training Carrow's bell ends. Mat told the Twins who then suggested that they did the same but learn from him. Mat was happy to implement that, and he told them about the Room of Requirement. Before he did though, he got inspiration form Hermione's idea of the practitioners about signing a similar contract which forbid anyone from telling anyone outside of the club where the group met. The Twins had enchanted some nasty surprises for anyone who broke the contract. That made everyone shiver in fear.

Most of the older years were amused at their antics and decided to stay out of it for the most part. He had heard about bets being taken about who would come out on top. Carrow had been told multiple times to stop what he was doing, nearly the entire school told the teachers that it was him who was initiating the violence. He was nearly constantly always in detention. Mat had had enough one day after a particularly violent battle and went to Flitwick about going to see Dumbledore about it. The professor agreed and they made their way to the headmaster's office.

VVVVVV

The password this time was "chocolate dip" and they made their way up the stairs. "Ah, Matthew, what can I do for you today?" he asked and smiled his grandfatherly smile.

"I want Carrow expelled" Mat demanded.

"Oh? Whatever for?" Dumbledore asked.

"What, whatever for? Mate, you serious? He attacked me loads of times, he is a pureblood bigot and insults and bullies everyone he comes across who's not a pureblood, he tortured me, he causes fights all the bloody time with his idiot hang-on's, who I still don't know the names of yet, he is the instigator of all the chaos that's been happening with the younger years in the school and as far as I know, nothings been done about it. Its basically a war zone out there and the teachers aren't doing anything about it. I've had to create a club to help train people who he's targeted as he's getting special training from people in Slytherin. And you asked me why I want him expelled?"

"I see, that would be a problem, but I cannot justify expelling a student over harmless pranks" he told Mat.

"Harmless pranks? He put me and other kids in hospital with his fucking harmless pranks. He either needs to stop or needs to be kicked out!" Mat was furious at the headmaster. The lack of action was absolutely appalling to him.

"I get your point Mr Lawson, I will send a letter to his father about the issue, but you must understand, I cannot expel him for this. I will encourage Severus to be harsher in his detentions. I know this must be frustrating, but rest assured, the matter will be solved in due time." The man then stood up, nodding in dismissal to Mat and Flitwick. They both turned and left.

"How do you think that went sir?" Mat asked Flitwick once they were well on their way back to the Ravenclaw dorms.

"He may seem rather aloof, but once he promises you something, he usually gets it done, believe me Mr Lawson, you won't have to worry about this much longer." Flitwick replied, he placed his hand on Mat's arm, reassuringly.

Mat nodded, "I hope so, its really starting to piss me off."

"I understand, how about we have a little duel to unleash your frustrations?"

Mat grinned, "that sounds brill".

VVVVVV

Over time the skirmishes stopped. Mat continued on his studies and he became more powerful with each new spell he learned. He also continued on with the battle club he had formed. A couple left the club, well, two Gryffindor's, Agatha Koch and Evie-Grace Hendricks, the rest stayed in due to them finding it fun and them learning at a faster rate than they normally would in class, as well as the friends they made. They all left pleasantly magically and physically tired. The year soon came to a close, end of term tests were a breeze for Mat due to his ability to remember most things he was told. Luckily these tests were much like muggle ones in that most of the time all they wanted you to do was regurgitate what someone told them. He aced them.

It quickly came to the end of term, and during the end of year feast, the house cup was decided. Slytherin had come last, mainly due to Carrow. This angered the whole house and there were more than a few angry stares at the boy. He glared back most of the time. Hufflepuff won. Which was a bit of a surprise. But because they were the only house not to get involved in the skirmishes, none of them lost points. It was a close call between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff though.

Mat had packed all his things and made his way out of the castle wit the rest of the students to catch the Hogwart's express. He had plans for the summer and couldn't wait to get them started. Like at Christmas, his parents were waiting for him. Mat quickly said final goodbyes to his mates and other people he knew, and walked went to his parents. But unlike last time, they headed over to the floo's. He decided to chill out and catch up with his parents then start the work the next day when he made It home.

Mat went to his usual spot in the little temple in the garden and meditated the morning after he got back. Colours rushed into his mind as he turned on his Sine Sight. He recognised most of the plants like lost long friends. He enjoyed the reconnect. He then delved into his Mind Palace to plan what to do next. He had to take stock of the yearly events, there was no where like this he could think of in Hogwarts to fully meditate. There appeared to be too many disturbances in that place. He planned for this summer and when the next school year started. That year would be when Harry comes to Hogwarts. Things would hit the fan soon after. So Mat decided to get some personal tutoring done over the summer holidays, mainly in runes with Clair. So off he went to meet up with her and see what she had done.

Mat and his mum arrived in the remote area of Yorkshire where the facility was placed. It used to be an old mill which they had converted into a factory. It was an aesthetically pleasing place, whitewashed outside walls with wooden beams gave it an air of oldness which contrasted well with the lush green spring countryside. It was in the middle of nowhere and no one would bother them here. The had also constructed small living quarters in the factory to house the workers, they were all basically destitute when they were hired and didn't have much so they happily moved here, apart from one lady who had a family in Birmingham. She apparated there five times a week.

Mat climbed out of the black Jaguar X-Type and waited for his mum before they made their way to the factory. Clair came out to greet them. Mat smiled at her and they said their pleasantries then headed inside. He met the 8 magicals in the building. One guy, a Martin Lightman, was responsible for the breakthrough in the rune cluster, Mat congratulated him and asked them about it. All they did was change the order the runes were in and it worked like a charm. There were stacks of radio's and TV's in the main storage area, all of differing quality to be sold to people who could afford them. Mat asked how they would get TV stations, of which Clair explained that they had managed to create another rune which picks up ambient satellite signals and the TV picks up what it found. They come with their own instruction handbook for the wizarding world customers. Mat congratulated them all once they showed him how it worked and gave them a bonus. He told Clair to hire someone to open up a store on Diagon Alley to start selling them as soon as possible. Which they did.

After that pleasant time at the factory, Mat then went to one of the converted warehouses that were dotted around the country for training. Mat's uncle had managed to hire a couple of people and he was also with a wizard who used to be in the Auror's but quit after his partner spread false rumours about him. Trevor Keddle was a pleasant man but had deep trust issues with people in authority. Understandable. They had already been training with some of the ex-forces, surprisingly most of them were fine with it. They had an inkling and the military had rumours about magicals but didn't know the extent of it. They had quickly managed to find certain rolls for people to fill. They would be placed in teams of five or six, depending on who was in which group. Usually it was three muggles and two magicals. Sometimes four muggles. The magiclas main job was to protect the team and heal anyone if they were injured. Turns out that shields were very effective against bullets, but the sheer amount of them would overwhelm it in a shot order. So one bullet would be no problem, but 60 bullets shot in a short amount of time would quickly overwhelm the shield and it would break. Also, only the most powerful of magicals could cast a shield that could encompass the whole group so they would have to be localised to protect certain areas or people. They had enough people for 2 teams at the moment and they sparred with each other daily, trying to outwit the other.

So far, some tactics included having two people lower the shields with massive amounts of firepower and another to shoot the enemy with high calibre ammunition to take them down and the magicals defending them from counter attacks, this appeared to be the most efficient option. The other two are firstly to have the wizards focus on destroying the shield and the muggles attack the enemy using flanking manoeuvres, and secondly, staggering the wizard with explosions and flash bang grenades. They quickly found out that disorienting a wizard was very effective due to the wizards need to keep concentration to cast a spell and then having the muggle take them down with hand to hand combat. The latter would be useful in taking down civilians or high value targets for capture. Overall, plans were in place and Mat was satisfied.

Mat got Clair and a Muggle soldier, only known as Sarge, who was one of the better trained, to work together to find solutions to use technology in a fight without magic interfering with it. Overall the summer was busy and Mat felt suitably prepared for the future, at least for now, who knows what the future would bring?


	13. Chapter 13

Hi everyone! As usual reviews are appreciated, still looking for that Beta if anyone is interested. I will try and get the next one done ASAP, but time is weird at the mo. Anyway, enjoy.

The summer went quite well, and Mat was nonstop planning and training. He pushed himself this time due to it being the year Harry coming to Hogwarts, he had to make plans which didn't change the timeline too much. Training with Tom was going swimmingly, he could use his movement sensing effortlessly and could stand a good chance against Tom. That being said, when Tom put his all into it and kept Mat at range, he always won. He had a fear that if everything went too perfectly that Voldemort would change his plans and make Mat's plans moot. He had to let Harry get into those situations, he didn't like it, but it had to be done. He felt like a dick for doing it though. His main plan now was to make himself and Lawson Enterprises more powerful and help them invent new stuff.

Nearly a week after he got home, he was informed by his uncle that they had a breakthrough in one of the labs. Mat didn't even know that there was more than one. Turns out that four months after Mat met with the inventors of the Rune Radio and Rune TV, a very smart man, 2 years out of Hogwarts, was hired by Lawson Enterprises. His revolutionary idea for using the compartment that was attached to the Rune Radio and TV that collects ambient magic could be used as a battery and can be charged by wizards charging it with their magic. This revolution had two initial concepts, the first was to use it in transportation as a form of hybrid car or other on vehicles, the second was to power weapons. Through many bribes and information gathering, they managed, somehow, to obtain schematics for an experimental gun the US and Chinese were developing, the Rail Gun. The main principle of the gun was to push high velocity ammunition through electromagnetism. It had already been implemented in some warships by the time Mat was killed, but the beauty of the magic battery is that it can be used as a handheld version. These smaller versions, which were enhanced by runes to make the materials used withstand more force than they should have, could be re used and experimented with more efficiently. The experimental Rail Guns that the US and China had developed were massive and required a lot of electricity to run, the magical battery took away the electricity aspect. They were quickly able to develop this weapon and have a prototype ready for when Mat visited them.

Mat and his Uncle Bob stepped out of the Range Rover, apparently military people loved big 4x4's. They strolled up to the non-assuming, run down warehouse on the outskirts of Hull. Mat immediately noticed when they walked through the protection and notice-me-not runes. Bob didn't even flinch. Mat shivered as if he walked through a cold shower and followed his uncle. The first thing they noticed, as they walked through the door, was the three heavily armed men in full military garb, standing guard around a man in a lab coat. They exchanged introductions and pleasantries, but no names were exchanged which he was fine with. They walked through some more doors with armed guards, Mat immediately noticed the tough looking witch as they walked into the third room. She studied them, well, studied Mat mostly and gave him a nod, which was more than any of the others had done as they arrived. He nodded back and they finally went into a lab-cum-firing range. There were six more people in here, two guards and what Mat assumed were four scientists. They were wearing lab coats and black trousers with work boots. Turned out that they were Lawson Lab Coats, if the Lawson Enterprises logo on the left arm and right breast was any indication. Again, no names were mentioned, yet they all seemed happy they were here and knew who both Bob and Mat were.

"So, what you got for us?" Bob said in his clipped Yorkshire accent to the apparent leader of the group, the same man who was introduced at the beginning.

He smiled and gestured to an impressive, half-futuristic weapon displayed on a plinth, in fact it looked like a weapon from the Fallout games. It was sleek, about a metre in length, had a thick underside grip area that was attached to one of four prongs with ridges cut out of them facing inwards. It had a standard handle and trigger mechanism with the stock of a gun, a simple piece of wood. It seemed to have been a cannibalised back half of a shotgun. "This is the Rail Gun" he declared excitedly, he picked it up and handed it to Bob "what do you think?" he asked expectantly.

Bob studied the object and nodded in satisfaction and pressed a button which split the weapon on a hinge, like a single shot shotgun would have, he looked down the hole and asked the scientist "does the cartridge go here?"

The man nodded and gave him what appeared to be a solid metal shotgun shell "place the shell in there like you would with a normal shotgun, aim and shoot, its that simple" he then pointed to the shooting range where a partially destroyed car was in front of a solid wall of concrete which had some impressive chunks blown out of it, showing that it was reinforced with steel rebar.

Bob walked up to the end of the range, loaded it, aimed and shot. Mat was surprised to say the least. There was a build-up of electricity and what seemed to be small flashes of lightning that danced across the top of the gun and then an almighty boom. As soon as the boom happened, the car exploded, and part of the concrete chipped off the wall behind. Bob and Mat both looked at the gun and what was left of the car "Fuck me" they both said in unison, turned to each other and smiled.

"Fuck me indeed" the scientist said with a face splitting grin "we tried it on a protego maxima as well, it burst straight through it and kept going." Mats eyes widened at that, he turned to him "she wasn't harmed by the way" he gestured to the room beyond where the witch was stationed "she was a bit stunned though. We feel that we can develop this way beyond the current parameters. The optimal range appears to be 200m after which there is a rather large drop off in power and accuracy but can still kill someone outright at over 2 miles away if our calculations are correct. We have also discovered that the magical battery is drained quite a bit with each shot. The battery amplifies the electromagnetic current tenfold. We tried adapting it by pure muggle means but you would need to be attached to a power plant which wouldn't be very effective in a fight."

Mat grinned and gave them his full support. He told them to make it more efficient, increase the range and maybe add a cartridge and make it semi-automatic. After Mat had given them his suggestions, he and Uncle Bob left. On the drive back home, they had a rather reserved conversation about this new weapon.

"It's more powerful than I thought it would be" Mat said quietly.

"I know, we need to make sure that it doesn't get into the wrong hands and make sure this weapon is kept secret until the right moment" Bob said.

"I agree, I think we need to wait at least another year until people start training with it, also perfect the weapon before we unleash it. I hate to say this, but I don't trust a lot of people we have, are you sure you and Gary have fully made sure of these people's loyalty?" Mat asked.

"I think so, but I agree, I don't know what you and your parents know, but I feel a war coming, the way your pushing for all this, it feels, I dunno, like… were on the eve of something big" Bob said forlornly.

"We are, I can't tell you until the right moment, but there is a storm brewing and its going to be messy. Just… please be safe uncle Bob. We have to make sure we have the right people and the right tools to stop it." Mat replied, equally sombre as his uncle. Bob nodded in understanding.

With that, the trip continued in silence until they got a Burger King which raised their spirits. Mat took a big bite of a double bacon cheeseburger and straightened in realisation "Do you remember anyone's faces from that place?"

Bob looked Mat in the eye and paled "No".

Mat nodded, "thought so, looks like they have some decent security."

VVVVVV

The rest of the summer continued in the same fashion of work and research. Mat still hadn't come up with a proper plan apart from try and help Harry, there wasn't much time left until school started again. He was getting further and further with his rune clusters and was already on advanced runes, basically on the same level as the average 7th year. He was well chuffed that he basically had an eidetic memory, it helped a lot. Clair was also very impressed with his understanding and recollection of runes. She gave him tasks to practicing carving runes on different materials. Slate was easy to do, mainly because it was easy to scratch and the runes carved were carved at a similar depth all around, due to it being like paper. But harder or softer stone, wood and metal were different due to the resistances of each material. He had to make sure the grooves carved were all at the same depth and the runes carved were right, it was amazing how different and difficult it was to carve runes in different materials, therefore, the final month of summer, he was meticulously practicing with this to get it right. It was surprisingly meditative and therapeutic.

He got an owl from the goblins one breakfast with a letter within another letter.

_Dear Mr Lawson,_

_Due to our agreement, the letter received from Madam Bones that was left in vault 5301 has been forwarded to this address. _

_Uggott_

Mat grinned, fried a fresh slice of bacon for the bird, sent back a thankyou note and when the owl had left. He sat down to read a very official looking letter, made from expensive looking parchment and an actual wax seal with a family crest which, if Mat had researched it, was eerily similar to the Bones of Sussex. Cracking the seal, it read:

_Dear Unknown_

_After a thorough search I cannot find any record of the incarceration of Mr Black and I have opened an official investigation, re-opening the case. While I do not agree with the cloak and dagger method that this has been brought to my attention, I appreciate the need for subtly and thank you for it. I do not understand the cryptic postscript of 'he will return' please clarify._

_Kind Regards_

_Madam Amelia of the Ancient and Noble House of Bones,  
Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. _

Mat sat back with a grin and decided to leave it a while until he contacted her again unless there was something regarding Sirius Black. Hopefully, Harry's third year would be clear of the events related to Sirius' escape from Azkaban from the third book and they could at least have a year of being a kid.

There were no more breakthroughs in magical R & D, but Mat wasn't sure what some of the research was and his parents decided to not reveal some of the projects that were ongoing, even though there weren't many, at least not yet. Lawson Enterprises were still relatively small but expanding fast. The stocks in big companies were paying dividends. The construction side was growing and had some rather large contracts. They were branching out into the muggle sciences in computing, aerospace and transport. The Lawson Technology Division or TLD were established in the months when Mat was at school. Anonymously, Mat suggested the use of multicore processors and cooling systems, hoping to jump start the processor race. He asked the head of the department to push for an agreement with AMD and Intel who had a technology exchange agreement so they would all benefit from this. He also suggested to experiment with LED technology for TV and increase resolution, increase in graphics research and increase computer performance. Mat also dropped a little idea of delving into solid-state drives, stating that he hated loading times. He felt that all this needed to happen sooner rather than later so that they could process information much faster.

The biggest leap that Lawson Enterprises had however, which Mat didn't realise how much of a deal it was, was the invention of fiber-optic internet. This massively increased the amount of data transferred which quickly placed them on the map as literally the fastest internet provider on the planet. They ironed out a government contract with the MOD within weeks of the announcement in which Lawson Enterprises decided to place a huge investment into perfecting the technology. Weirdly, Mat didn't have an input in this discovery. Because Lawson were new in the industry, they snapped up young minds and people who were ostracized for one reason or another, one of these people was one the inventors of perfecting the technology, a Mr Myke Dean. Fibre-optic cables were already being placed around the world, but Dean created a way to use recycled plastics and glass to make the fibres used and one of his colleagues improved on this by Ibrahim Saeed to a faster bundle of fibre-optics than what was currently available by tenfold as well as drastically decreasing the price of them. Basically, the government were paying Lawson Enterprises to get rid of waste plastics and they were selling the product far cheaper than anyone in the world.

About two weeks before Mat was to leave for Hogwarts, the Lawsons had a gathering of influential business people from across Britain. It was a relatively formal affair to celebrate the fiber-optics breakthrough, most of these people were from the telecommunication business. Mat wasn't interested in a lot of it, leaving his mum to do most for the business deals and general socialising. His dad was there but he didn't really feel comfortable with this kind of thing. He nodded politely to most for the introductions and was planning to disappear to his room as soon as he could to play on the PS1. However, that was when he was introduced to Mr and Mrs Finch-Fletchley and their son, Justin.

Mat immediately recognised the name. He shook hands with the boy, who was annoyingly a bit taller than Mat, had an aristocratic look, strong jaw, straight nose, deep set eyes and brown hair in a puffy combover. He was dressed, like Mat, in plain black trousers, belt, shoes and shirt, the main difference was that Mat was in a plain white shirt and Justin was in a purple one. They said their welcomes and Mat said that they should hang out soon, seeing that there are not many people their age at the event. He agreed and left for Mat to welcome the guests.

Once the guest greeting was out of the way, Mat went to find Justin. He found him in the library staring at the magical, hidden half of the library in wonder. He was brushing his hand over the shimmering portal that led into the other side "I thought you were" Mat said, making Justin jump and turn to him.

"What is it?" he asked, his head snapping to Mat and then to the portal and back.

"It's a divide that separates the normal side from the magical one"

"You're a wizard too?" He asked with a smile.

"I am, do you start Hogwarts this year? I've not seen you before" Mat asked.

"Yeah I start in about 2 weeks. Are you starting too?"

"No mate, I'll be starting my second year. Come on, better to speak in here, there are privacy wards, you know, statute of secrecy and all that" he nodded his head towards the portal and stepped through. After a couple of seconds, Justin followed him through. He waited near the table which had stacks of paper and rune designs on it, as well as actual practice runes Mat had been working on.

"Are all these magical books?" Justin asked amazed. He was looking all around the room trying to take it all in, he walked towards a shelf listed as '_year 2_' obviously they were the books for Mat's second year at Hogwarts.

"Yep, once I found out about me being a wizard, I got my mum and dad to buy a copy of everything in Flourish and Blotts, I may have panicked a bit, but I found out I'm good at runes because of that, so it worked out ok. Also, I can read loads of stuff between school so I'm not proper bored. I mean, I like normal stuff, but, there's something…well… magical about magical stuff, sounds weird when you put it like that" Mat said with a bit of a blush.

"Ha! Yeah it does but I know what you mean, its like stepping into a different world. Diagon Alley was a massive culture shock when I went there last month, I wish I got more stuff though, I feel a bit under prepared at the moment, I have read nearly everything on the list though."

"Yeah, I know what you mean, I was kind of prepared for it, the ministry explained a lot of it when they came to see me at my school, I was a bit shocked. Here," Mat walked over to the history section and got a couple of books on wizarding history, law and etiquette, "these should help, they did for me, some of the stuff is, to us, old fashioned but you need to be prepared for… some stuff, like idiot purebloods" he said with his hand clenching into a fist.

"Err, what do you mean? Whats a pureblood?"

"Well, I'm what's called a muggleborn, which means none of my parents are wizards, then there are half-bloods, which means one parent is a wizard and the other isn't, then there is pureblood, which basically means that all their relatives are wizards. It also means that most of them are inbred, they control the wizarding economy and have a lot of power in the wizarding government. There's a lot of bigotry in this world. I had a lot of problems with a kid called Carrow, who thinks he's better than everyone else and tries to prove it by bullying people. I stopped him from doing that" Mat said that with hardness that made Justin step back a bit. "Anyway, read this, it will explain a lot, don't worry though, just prepare yourself for dick heads, like in every school"

Justin nodded and Mat diverted the conversation to a happier conversation and soon enough it was time to leave and the party soon dissolved. Mat gifted Justin the books which made his parents happy as well as Justin's.

After the party, the weeks went smooth and nothing happened really and Mat decided to chill out as much as he could.

VVVVVV

1st September soon rolled on, Lawson Enterprises was expanding and making a shit ton of money, the Rune Radio and TV were on the verge of being sold worldwide at the same time, he wasn't sure about any new weapons or anything coming out of the magical R&D aspect but there was bound to be something soon, people were smart. Mat decided to just go with the flow, if he couldn't change the timeline too much, he had to really. He did make sure to introduce Harry to the club and train him personally, force nutrient potions down his throat and introduce him to physical fitness, maybe bring him to the room of requirement and train him there. He needed the kid to be as powerful as possible. Mats personal training went very well, he was stronger and faster than ever. He had perfected his rune carving, now all he needed to do was remember all the known ones and then start creating new combinations out of them.

The main thing he wanted to do was raise suspicion about Quirrell, knowing that the parasite Voldemort was stuck to him, it was bound to make the man a bit odd. At least Mat hoped that was the case. He shivered to think that something didn't happen how they were supposed to because the timeline had changed. Regardless, step one was to create suspicion about Quirrell so he had less freedom to do what he wanted, hopefully then he would make mistakes because of the extra pressure. He would let Harry and the super group do their thing with the Philosophers Stone, maybe push Neville by inviting him to the duelling club and forcing Harry, Hermione and Ron to practice together as a team, thereby training them as a unit. Mat would realise a lot sooner that Neville's wand wasn't his if Neville was in the club and then persuade him to get a new one that matched him, thereby helping the poor lad.

So now, plans were in place, as vague as they were overall, and Mat and his family were doing the annoying, obligatory 4-hour trip down to London to go back up to fucking Scotland. He hated Wizards sometimes. His parents decided to stay over in London for a couple of days, Mat found out on the train, he asked them why they couldn't have gone a couple of days earlier with them and they all have had a little holiday. They blushed and apologised, saying that they didn't think of it. That kind of put him in a foul mood. He stamped it down with his occlumency and rode in silence for the rest of the trip.

Eventually they arrived in London at Kings Cross, he gave his parents a rather terse hug, in their defence they did kind of look guilty, but he wanted to emphasise that he was royally pissed off at them. He quickly went through platform 9 ¾ and found his mates, Craig, Eddie and Rand, they were all happy to see him they found a cabin that they could all fit in together. On the way they bumped into Cho, Milly and Marietta, they squeezed into the same cabin as them, well at first they squeezed, it didn't seem very packed to say that there were 7 kids in a cabin. He shrugged it off as a wizard thing.

Mat decided to take a trip as soon as the train set off, intending to find Harry Potter. Only a few cabins down and he found him, he looked like a fish out of water, staring out of the window at nothing. He was very small, his toes barely touched the ground, his clothes were way too big for him, the glasses he wore were cracked, he had a full head of bushy jet-black hair that almost came down to his eyes. The main thing that struck Mat about him, he was skinny, too skinny and his skin was a weird grey colour, he looked ill. Fury rose up in Mat seeing him this way, guilt also sprang up as well, could he have done something sooner? Sent the authorities or something to investigate? Or would there be something in place to stop an investigation? He smothered his emotions for the time being, occlumency was brilliant, he smoothed his clothes and opened the door. Harry turned to look at Mat, and he was stopped in his tracks by his eyes, they were like emeralds in the sun. Mat couldn't help but smile.

"Hi!" Mat said as he walked through the threshold and plopped himself on the seat across from him. He reached over and held his hand out for a handshake. Harry took it and shook it, the kid had a surprisingly strong grip.

"Hi, I'm Harry, Harry Potter" he said with an honest smile.

Mat grinned back at him, "are you really? Brilliant! Mat Lawson, I'm on the hunt for people to join my duelling club. Started it last year, I thought I'd try and recruit some firsties, helped us all out with our studies when I started last year, also made a load of new friends." Mat pitched at Harry, the kid seemed a bit overwhelmed but smiled again.

"Sounds like fun, but, do we fight each other or something? Like a fight club?" he asked a bit confused.

Mat barked a laugh that which made Harry jump "if it were a fight club then we couldn't be talking about it, now would we?" he gave the kid a wink, unfortunately the reference went way over his head which made Mat a bit sad, Harry tilted his head like a puppy, looking at Mat like he was a bit weird. "It's a quote from a film mate, you need to watch it, its epic. Anyway, no its not like a fight club, we do have small duels though, more like practice spells on each other or whatever else you want to do. We mainly do it so its an excuse for the houses to chat to each other outside of class, or you could do your homework there, whatever you want really, but we did notice that the ones who did come got higher grades overall in practical's though. So, you in?"

Harry grinned and nodded, was about to say something when the door opened and there stood a shy, ginger kid, with a rat held to his chest and some sandwiches in clingfilm in the other "erm, hi, can I sit in here please? Everywhere else is full." He asked, looking directly at Harry, at Harry's forehead to be exact, ignoring Mat him, odd that.

"Hello!" Mat stood up, stood directly in front of the lad and held out his hand. Ginger kid jumped and his eyes locked onto Mat as if seeing him for the first time "didn't even notice me eh? Why was the first thing you looked at was at Harry's scar? It's rude to stare you know kid."

He had the decency to blush, and shook it "err, hi, I'm Ron, Ron Weasley" he said looking up at Mat.

"I know mate, we met last year, I met your entire family in fact, I'm also mates with the Twins," he said with an over exaggerated happy tone, he then pretended to be hurt as he said "you don't recognise me? I feel a bit insulted." He then smiled, putting him at ease a bit. "Same offer I gave old Hazza here, duel club, I run it, interested? Harry's coming" throughout Mat's speech, Ron had many different emotions, mainly an embarrassed, pouty look, which for some reason pissed Mat off, as soon as he told Ron of Harry coming to the duelling club, he immediately agreed, no other sales pitch was needed 'weird that' Mat thought. "Anyway, here are the flyers with the timetable, I'll leave you two young'uns to it. Oh, I kinda forgot, watch what I do Harry" he looked Harry who nodded and tensed up as Mat pulled out his wand, he swished the wand in a pointed spiral and incanted "reparo". "Remember that spell mate, it'll serve you well" he then nodded to them both and left.

"Wicked" Ron and Harry said at the same time, Mat heard them and smiled as he left, he heard them both laugh.

'While it is a bit weird the way Ron acted around Harry, nothing bad will come of it, hopefully' Mat thought to himself, he did do the rounds to try and get more people and re recruit more people to the club. Pure coincidence that Harry was the first person he came across. While making the rounds, he bumped into Justin on the way and quickly got him and another kid to join, Dean Thomas. He met Neville, and basically browbeat him to join after he helped him and Hermione find Trevor the Toad, Hermione agreed to come as well. Overall, quite a few decided to join and re-join, he gave flyers to them all anyway. 'Hopefully some Slytherins come this year' Mat mused to himself. It took him about an hour to do the rounds, most of the older kids ignored him, some of the Slytherins outright threatened him, especially Carrow and that. Mat left them to it. He sat with the Twins and Lee Jordan for a bit and left after 10 minutes and decided to relax in his original cabin, happy and a bit tired from doing the rounds. He caught up with everyone then and relaxed for the remainder of the journey to Hogwarts.

Eventually, the train pulled up at Hogsmeade, the firsties were all herded to the boats, the ever-noticeable Hagrid yelling over the top of the hubbub for them to hurry, as per usual. The second years were a bit confused until a prefect shouted for all other students to grab a coach, so they did. They strolled up to a waiting carriage, it was jet black yet stood out in the twilight of the day, had a simple jet-black wood dado decoration and two candle lamps on arched poles attached to the front where the driver should be. Mat knew they should be pulled by thestrals, yet he couldn't see them. You were supposed to be able to see them if you had seen death. Strange how he couldn't, and he had technically died. Regardless, the seven of them could easily fit into the carriage, once they were settled, off they went. This journey wasn't as memorable as the boat ride, the trees on both sides made it seem a bit gloomy, yet the sun was out and the roof was down. The carriages took them right through the barbican, over the bridge, through the main gate and into the courtyard. They were told to hurry up and take their seats in the main hall by McGonagall. "Really Miss? We've literally just come off the carriage that only has one speed, there is a massive queue of others that are still coming up the hill, and now apparently we're to basically run into main hall because we are going too slow and need to hurry up? Why? The firsties hadn't even got onto the boats when we set off and that's at least a half an hour ride." Mat shut up when he realised McGonagall was glaring at him.

"Get in Lawson, now" was all she said, her Scottish accent bleeding through which indicated she's pissed off. Mat just shrugged and followed his mates who had bravely walked away when he was speaking.

As they walked through the threshold of the gate Rand turned to Mat "you're a nutter mate."

Mat huffed a laugh "We've been here 2 minutes and they tell us to hurry in as if they can't be arsed with us, dick move I think?" He replied, "I was close to snapping last year, hurry this and hurry that, hurry hurry hurry, it doesn't make anyone actually go faster, just makes people think you're an arsehole and freaks some people out who will panic and do something daft, thereby slowing the whole thing down." He justified to Rand.

Marietta chipped in "to be fair, I thought the same" she said in Mat's defence, there were a couple of nods in the little group.

They had finally got to the main hall and took their seats, it was still half empty and they had made good time just taking a stroll. Mat had a quick look around "looks like we're proper late, they've all had the food and fucked off already, look! Half of the teachers have already left! What are we to do?!" He exclaimed in mock panic. Rand and Craig laughed, and the rest just shook their heads. About twenty minutes later, the hall was bustling with the excited chatter of kids who hadn't seen each other in ages. Eventually silence was called as the doors opened and McGonagall strolled through, followed by an excitable gaggle of kids, she looked like a mother duck being followed by baby ducks. Mat couldn't help but snort at the image. Then he realised that they all probably looked the same last year and he sobered up at that. Eventually they all stopped, and the sorting began. Mat was relieved that everyone got sorted into the house they were supposed to be in. Harry and the younger Gryffindors were seated not too far away from Mat and he gave the kid a thumbs up. Mat welcomed all the others in his house, they were sat near him, would be rude not too. "It's going to be an interesting year I think" He said to himself.


	14. Chapter 14

Mat and the others went to their dorms after the sorting and quickly got settled. He took a trip up to the common room and noticed Tiana laid on a sofa, her hair was different, he noticed, it was longer now. He blushed as he realised he'd been looking at her a bit too long, smiled and walked away. He sat on a seat, pulled a rune book out and pretended to read it. Inside he was having an internal discussion with himself, 'why was I staring at her? Her hairs only a bit different, wait… oh shit'. "Puberty" he whispered to himself smacked his head onto the book groaned. 'How could I have forgotten about that? This is going to be a nightmare' he thought to himself. Why didn't he notice it on the same on the train here? Maybe because he had a mission and he barely spoke to her on the train. 'Seeing her laid on that sofa like a cat made her clothes hug her in all the right places' he thought to himself. He quickly squashed that train of thought, he was technically nearly 50 years old. It's disgusting. He felt pressure build up behind his eyes. As he realised that this might happen a lot, how it will affect his thinking.

Teenagers have a drastically different brain chemistry than adults do, therefore they think and act differently. Will this change in the brain happen to Mat? He thought about it and thought that he might initially do but if he was aware of it, maybe he could rationalise thought. Teenagers are impulsive and had other… distractions. He remembered those distractions while at school, and they did start at the same time thinking about it. He took a few deep breaths and raised his occlumency to calm down. Maybe he could rely on occlumency to train his brain to think rationally and less impulsively? Or would that change him on a fundamental level and somehow block out emotions? Going through puberty is an essential part of life, yet one that Mat wished he never wanted to go through again, but he was aware this time, he could control it, he hoped. He pushed these thoughts aside and started reading about rune clusters, that calmed him down a bit until it was nearly time for bed, he hoped he didn't have any physical reactions in the morning, he could do without those.

He chilled with Rand, Eddie and Craig for a bit until they all decided to go to bed. In the morning they did their usual business and walked to the main hall for breakfast, early like Ravenclaws tend to be. There were a few at Slytherin and a couple at Hufflepuff. All normal apart from one girl in Gryffindor, Hermione Granger. She was sat there alone reading a book while munching on toast. Something that Mat could never get the hang of, eating and reading. He shrugged it off and sat with his dorm mates and ate breakfast, the hall slowly started filling up as people trickled in. Mat had finished his breakfast by the time it was full and the normal hustle and bustle of a room full of kids. It was then that Dumbledore decided to do his speech. It should have been the day before after sorting, but it wasn't for some reason. Regardless, he gave the usual spiel about not venturing into the forbidden forest, everyone did anyway though, and Filches banned list, which had grown since last year and Dumbledore seemed to be pleased about that. The final piece was what Mat had been expecting, but pretended to be as unknowledgeable about it as possible "And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death." Dumbledore announced, giving his most serious look to the school, his gaze lingering on Harry a bit too long Mat noticed which made him a bit angry 'ever the puppet master' he thought. There were a few murmurs about that which were then quieted by the heads of house giving timetables out for the year.

Mat's schedule was hardly any different than the year before, a few classes were moved about, no new core ones though which was a shame. In place of flying was a spare space which could be either free time or be filled in by a subject of their choice, the other spare time slots also had this option within them. There were seven choices, Art, Ghoul Studies, Magical Theory, Muggle Art, Muggle Music, Music and Xylomancy. Mat was thrilled about that, he had heard of them the previous year but didn't think that all of them would be available, he chose to fill three of the four spare blocks with Ghoul Studies, Magical Theory and Muggle Music and told Flitwick about two minutes after he had had been given the option. He could feel his hunger for knowledge kick in. He decided to have three Duelling Club days, Tuesday and Thursday evenings after tea and all-day Saturday, when people can just stop by whenever they wanted. It was a Sunday when they were given their timetables and so nearly everyone decided to socialise a bit longer than usual at breakfast. Mat chose to remind everyone who agreed to the days that the duel club, he edited the flyers with the new Duelling Club times and spent the rest of the day in the gym in the Room of Requirement. He did a good work out and left happy and hit the showers in his dorms. He relaxed in the common room reading a book about ghouls and ghosts in preparation of his new module he'd taken until teatime. Rand and the others discovered him in the common room and asked if he would go with them to get food. He agreed and went with them.

On Monday morning, a huge brown and white owl came into the hall and dropped off a parcel in front of Mat, he looked at it in slight shock with his mouth full of scrambled eggs, until he was elbowed in the ribs. He snapped out of it and gave the bird some bacon absentmindedly, it grabbed it and took off. The parcel was wrapped in a plain brown paper with an envelope on top, which was stamped with the Lawson Enterprises logo.

_Dear Mr Lawson,_

_Enclosed within is our latest invention, we are proud to finally get a working prototype of a more advanced set of magic nulling runes which work with more advanced tech, such as a laptop. The people at the tech division have developed a laptop powerful enough to play the latest computer games (Max Payne, The Sims, Diablo 2, Deus Ex, Age of Empires 2 and Unreal Tournament) and are all installed onto the hard drive and are available to play. We intended to gift you this before you left but we had to figure out some bits and bobs to streamline everything. We mainly want you to use it and see if works well in a magically saturated area see if it needs any work. _

_Have fun! (but not too much),  
Clair_

Mat couldn't help but grin as he ripped off the paper and stared at a black plastic case, he unclipped and opened it. Inside was a silver-white laptop, a square bulky thing about 30cm wide and had a separate holding bit for the mouse. There was an attachment to the back side of the laptop which looked like a metal grille which faintly glowed blue in between. He could see faint symbols which he assumed were runes in the glowy bits. He reverently took it and the mouse out, inspecting the laptop he saw that it was solid steel, it was quite heavy, that meant expensive. He saw that the casing was solid and completely welded together, like it wasn't supposed to be opened again. Made sense if it was to stop magic from getting in. It had a flat tube-like thing underneath which split and went into three areas of the laptop, he saw that they were covering the air vents. It also had four blocky feet keeping the tube from touching a surface and placed it on the table, the blue grille thing was attached to the tube giving it a long flat fifth leg to stand on. Mat was impressed. Nearly everyone around him had stopped talking and were watching him, he didn't notice.

He placed it in front of him and lifted the screen and it looked like a normal laptop except it was all metal apart from the screen. It was indented further in than usual, it looked at the edges and saw that there were parts of small runes around the screen, going into the laptop itself. Looked like a protective bubble that surrounded the screen. He pressed the on button and it lit up perfectly. The blue of the battery lit up and shone brighter as it powered up. It took only a minute to fully turn on and it asked for new user information, like you would for a newly bought machine. He plugged the mouse in and got it going in no time. He finally noticed the large crowed around him and that's when the silence was broken, and questions were asked in the form of a verbal tidal wave. Mat just smiled and said he will speak to everyone later, got up and headed to his dorms to keep it safe, he had a day of classes after all.

Apart from questions about his new toy, it was a relatively uneventful day and he found that he accumulated back at Hogwarts pretty fast. He answered the questions from people from the Wizarding World explaining what it was and did and told the muggleborn ones that it was just a prototype and would probably be released in a year or so.

It felt good to use his magic around people again. He was way in front of his peers in most subjects. There was a drop-in class for muggle music which he attended after his day lessons had finished. There were many instruments in the large cavernous space. The reverb was amazing. It had a high ceiling with posters and paintings of famous muggle musicians, ranging from the Beetles to Tchaikovsky. There were violins, guitars, a harp and a plethora of other instruments, even a full drum kit, however, he immediately found the grand piano in the far corner of the room and worked his way toward it. He sat down and started playing his fingers immediately found the keys as he played. It felt so good, he could see the golden colour of his magic pulsing with the music and he just let it go. He forgot how good this felt. He played every genre imaginable within half an hour. He was lost in the music. He felt sated after his time on the keys, he finally looked up after reigning his magic back in and noticed he had an audience. The music teacher, who he didn't know the name of, was staring at him open mouthed and teary eyed, similar looks from the other students, about 10 in total. Mat blushed, not liking the attention, he just gave them a cheesy grin and shrugged.

"Merlin's beard" the music teacher stated "that was magnificent, I didn't know you had that ability! I've hard of it, but to see it first hand… Amazing!" he exclaimed, joy radiating from him. "What's you're name boy?"

"Mat, Mat Lawson, Sir" Mat replied, embarrassed.

"Well Mat, You've very gifted indeed. Do you understand what it is you can do?"

He mumbled to himself "I get that a lot" before replying "errr, no sir, I only thought that I could do it, I didn't know it was a thing really"

"You're a Harmonic Mage" He stated with a wide smile and wonderment.

"OK, what's one of them sir?" The other students looked as curious as Mat did.

"It's an ability that enraptures an audience with the wizard's music. You can influence emotions with the music you play. It was first mentioned in Assyria, have you head of the Horns of Jericho?" Mat nodded "well, it wasn't a horn, it was a Harmonic Mage who used a horn to influence the people around him and made people fight harder and with greater strength and ferocity. It was said to have also made the wizards more powerful, powerful enough to destroy Canaan's walls, turning them into dust. Obviously, the muggles didn't fully understand what was happening, so the story got distorted and used as a story in the Christian Bible."

"Your telling me that I can make wizards more powerful by playing the piano?" Mat asked sceptically, raising his eyebrow.

The Music Teacher coughed into his hand a bit "errr well, no, well, I don't know, it's a very rare gift and not well documented. The history of it is probably as distorted as the muggle version I suppose. They think that the lead singer of the Weird Sisters had a bit, but we can't know for certain."

Mat nodded and thought to himself 'now I have a name for this ability, why did none of the books I got from Flourish and Blotts mention it?' "Why have I not heard of this before sir?"

"Ah! That's because these skills are rare indeed and because they are so rare, they tend to be forgotten. I only discovered it while reading an old family book. Like Metamorphmagi, it's a skill that can be passed down through blood, do you know if any of your relatives had any affiliation with music?" He asked, genuinely curious.

"Muggleborn sir" Mat said with a little smile.

The teacher smiled back all knowingly, "I beg to differ, and its Mr Thompson".

After that, they broke up and Mat felt the urge to search the Hogwarts library for information on his ability. It turns out he was not as unique as he thought. Or maybe the way he discovered his ability could have changed how it manifests and how he can see magic when he activated his sight. On his way he wrote a quick note to send to his mum to ask the Goblins for an Inheritance Test. Curious to see if anything came from it, but that was an afterthought. He was more focussed on what he could do himself. He gave the note to an owl and sent it off. He strolled into the library, stood at the entrance, cracked his knuckles and said to himself "time for some book diving".

He found a couple of mentions in 3 different books. Turns out that magical skills are quite common if you knew what to look for. Parselmouth is a skill, so is having an innate knowledge of herbology, being a Seer, having magical resistance, the previously mentioned metamorphmagi, as well as abilities which affect certain other species, like the Veela allure and werewolf enhanced senses. The books that mentioned Harmonic Mages appear to be only references about it or mention a few people who may have had it and appear to only suggest that they could influence emotions with their music, though nothing specific or ground-breaking like power behind the Horns of Jericho. He would have to ask Mr Thompson to borrow the book he got the information about the power in. It was near curfew, so he took a light jog back to his dorms.

It was Tuesday and he did his rounds in the morning to ask people to come to the duelling club. He focussed on Harry and the others to make sure they would come to the first session and try it out. Lessons went smoothly all day and he had kept everything up and running. He managed to convince Professor Flitwick to oversee the club and said that they would do an exhibition for them.

After tea, it was finally time and Mat rushed off with his volunteers, two sixth years, Gideon Crumb of Gryffindor and Micky Ferdinand of Ravenclaw, to make sure everything was ready, his emotions were all over the place. He was excited, nervous, apprehensive, scared and everything in between. The duelling room as spacious and it had specially made shields which protected the spectators from stray spells. In the centre of the room was a huge table-like platform with markers on to tell the duellers to stand. Around the room were similar style set ups but not raised, more like lines drawn on the floor. There were also training mannequins which looked like very sturdy straw men. People started filtering in and he watched them all come.

Strangely, the first ones to come in were Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, Millicent Bulstrode and Pansy Parkinson. They came in looking all superior and sneering at everyone. Malfoy locked eyes at Mat, Mat nodded at him but was ignored so Mat rolled his eyes. A few other firsties came in from different houses, some from Hufflepuff which he was happy about. The main ones were from Gryffindor and Ravenclaw though, and finally the main ones he wanted to arrive, Harry, Hermione, Ron and Neville, Neville looking nervous and Ron and Harry looking exited. Hermione came in slightly after, alone. The last to arrive were Mat's friends with Flitwick who he smiled at as they came in.

It came to 7pm and Mat and Flitwick walked onto the main duelling platform. Mat turned a bit red as he quieted everyone down. "Hello everyone! Thanks for coming. You know the rules, they are on the pamphlet, I'm in the process of making a timetable so we can learn at a quick yet steady pace. No one will be paired with different years and I encourage you all to pick your partners from a different house too. The first thing we are to do tonight is see me get my ass kicked by Professor Flitwick over there." Mat nodded to the professor and a few students laughed.

Mat heard Malfoy mutter "I can't wait to see this filthy mudblood get taken out". Mat just took a deep breath to calm down as he turned to Flitwick.

They both locked eyes and bowed to each other, they never broke eye contact then they both stood up and turned around, walking 7 paces away and turning back and they took their stance. Flitwick had his wand over his head, slightly turned and a hand out for balance, legs slightly more than shoulder width apart. He stared at Mat with the serious expression he came to expect in from the man.

Mat had his wand out in front of him pointing at Flitwick, turned completely to his side and his spare hand in a defensive boxing position for balance, his legs were wider apart than Flitwick but he was bouncing on his toes.

Micky had the honour of starting the duel. "Once my hand drops, the duel begins, the duel lasts three bouts, the best of three wins. No serious injury, lethal spells, or unforgivables allowed. There is no time limit. On three, two, one. BEGIN!"

His hand lowered and Flitwick immediately cast a disarming charm wordlessly which Mat dodged with ease. Mat spun and got down on one knee as he cast back a stunner quickly followed by a leg locking charm and another stunner "Stupefy, Locomotor Mortis, Stupefy!"

Flitwick dodged the first one by just moving a little bit, batted the leg-locker away and redirected the stunner back at Mat. Mat expected it and quickly batted it away and followed up with a water summoning charm which made a ball in the air on near the tip of his wand, freezing it in mid-air and blasting it apart with a bombarda, all in quick succession "Aguamenti, Glacious, Bombarda!". Flitwick wasn't prepared for the explosion but expected to get wet so created a shield around himself which would have frozen the water, so it blocked the ice but pushed him back making him stumble. Mat kept the pressure on him and sent a couple of stunners in quick succession, one to the chest and another to the leg "Stupify Stupify!". Flitwick rebounded the first stunner but didn't see the second one to his leg which made him fall to one knee, his leg numb. The redirected stunner hit Mat on the shoulder of his spare arm at the same time as Mat cast a disarming jinx at the Professor, making him lose the first round.

Mat stood up straight, never taking his eye off Flitwick and rolling his numb arm. It was lucky it was a redirect and a glancing blow, otherwise he might be a bit too dazed to carry on. Flitwick looked at Mat wide eyed and gave him an uncharacteristically, goblin-like grin and summoned his wand wordlessly, which caused a few mutters in the audience. Most of the students were a bit gobsmacked at Flitwick because they had never seen the usually jolly professor like this before, also not realising that he was powerful enough to do wandless magic. They both got into position for round 2 and waited for the others first move.

After about 10 seconds of staring each other out, Flitwick made the first move by throwing a stream of fire at Mat, "incendio!" Flitwick whispered as he controlled the stream of fire rushed toward him. The wall of fire rushing toward him made him panic. Mat knew he couldn't dodge and conjured a powerful shield spell "Protego Maxima!" Mat new he screwed up then because when the flames hit, he could barely feel anything hitting it and using that spell makes you unable to do anything else, and he couldn't use his ability in front of all these people. He held the shield up and the torrent of flames carried on, turns out that the shield doesn't fully stop the heat from coming through, so it slowly got warmer and warmer and Mat started to slowly be cooked alive. He made a split decision as the sweat dripped off his body and struggled to breathe and charged at the Professor planning on hitting him with the shield, but he couldn't see where he was going because of the fire and charged right past him. Mat turned around and dropped the shield when he saw Flitwick and that the fire was extinguished. He was in the process of casting a Stupify when he was hit by three spells, a disarming spell in his hand, leg lock on his left leg, above the knee and a Flipendo spell in the chest which catapulted him across the stage and onto the floor in a heap. He looked up into the rafters of the ceiling, struggling for breath. He noticed Flitwick at the edge of his vision, and he felt a soothing wash over him as the Professor cast a small healing charm over him. After about 10 seconds, Mat stood up and shook his grogginess off.

At the beginning of round three, Mat was hurt, his chest was heaving, legs were wobbly and shoulder numb. Still he nodded to his teacher, who nodded back, and they squared up again. Mat was holding his arm to his chest and was struggling to fully move, and Flitwick was favouring his right leg. Mat's first move was to cast the Fumos charm which cast a smokescreen and the cast a Bird-Conjuring Charm slightly after "Fumos, Avis" Mat cast, voice just above a whisper. He made his way forward slowly toward Flitwick, redirecting the birds so they came from a different direction to hopefully sneak up on the Professor while distracted. What Mat didn't know however, is that the professor had cast a heat seeking charm which, made Mat light up like a Christmas tree for himself and cast a disarming charm at Mat through the mist which cancelled Mat's Avis spell as it made his wand fly away. Mat stood there dumbfounded as Flitwick banished the fog and the whole room erupted in applause.

Flitwick walked up to Mat bouncing on his toes and a huge grin on his face congratulating Mat "Brilliant! Brilliant, Mr Lawson your skills have certainly improved! Absolutely marvellous!" He slapped Mat on his back as the applause slowly died down. Mat couldn't help but hear Harry and Ron mutter "Wicked!"

Flitwick then gathered them all up and got them into pairs, Mat split Ron and Harry up as they immediately got into a pair. Mat placed Harry with Neville and Ron with Hermione, got the first years together and told them what they will be practicing in this session. "Expelliarmus is one of the most underrated yet one of the most important spells you can have. Disarming your opponent is key for victory in the Wizarding World, and as you saw, can literally let you win against a superior opponent". Mat nodded towards Flitwick who was instructing the higher years, of which only 7 had turned up. "I want you all to keep casting and casting until it comes naturally. Do this with every spell and you will eventually not have to say the word and some of you may not even have to move your wand to do it. Every spell you saw me cast I have cast over 100 times each. Its tiring, but you will never forget it. I'll show you the incantation and then you try. Don't be afraid to ask for help".

And so they went. They spent the next hour doing that and then against each other once they managed casting it. Mat joined in every so often, helping. Harry and Hermione were the first to get it right. Hermione tried to boss Katie Bell claiming that she couldn't cast it because she didn't say the word right. Mat couldn't help but smile to himself as the she basically repeated the "its Levi-OOOHHH-SAAAAHHHH not Levi-O-SAAARRR" from the movies.

"No Katie" Hermione said "It's Expelli-ARRMUS, not Expelli-A-mus!"

"Is it?" Mat asked her, she spun round and puffed up when she saw him.

"Of course, I am repeating exactly what you did!"

Mat nodded, "well, if that's how you learn" he then turned around and took 10 paces away from her, turning back to face her "cast it at me". He commanded.

"W-what?" She stuttered and clung her wand to her chest.

"Cast the Expelliarmus spell at me, go on!" she puffed up again and went to cast it.

"Exp…" Mat flicked his wrist and sent a silent Expelliarmus at her sending her wand flying. She squeaked and watched it fly end over end to the other side of the room. She turned and stared wide eyed at Mat. Mat just smiled softly and cast the summoning charm for her wand and gave it to her.

"Did I have to say the word to use that spell?" Mat asked

"Errrr, no, you didn't say anything." She replied

"So why do the words matter if I can cast it silently?"

"Because you thought the spell and because you thought it you did it and cast it that way."

"Partially correct. Magic is about intent. I use the spell in my mind to remember the feeling of using the spell. Magic can't hear you say the words to cast it, it's your brain that links the incantation to the word and then magic does the rest. Read Bagman's Guide to Wandless Magic for a good start. She explains how to feel the spells your using so you can master them. Look it up." Mat replied. She looked chastised at first and about to argue until he told her about the book and she grinned and nodded thanks. Other students were looking at him with thoughtful expressions and so Mat helped Katie and was able to cast it once and never had trouble. At the end of the session all the first years were happy that they'd managed to learn a new spell.

It was the start of something amazing. Mat stood and observed them and smiled as they had fun. He wanted to treasure this time as much as they could and have fun while they can. He hoped that he could end the coming war faster and prepare them for the future. He became melancholic as he felt the weight of the Wizarding world on his shoulders for the first time. He locked eyes with Tiana, and she smiled at time. He smiled back and felt the weight ease off a little bit.


End file.
